Butterfly McQueen
Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen (January 7, 1911 – December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen first appeared in film in 1939 as Prissy, Scarlett O’Hara’s maid, in the film Gone with the Wind. She was unable to attend the movie’s premiere because it was held at a whites-only theater. McQueen also had a role on the controversial Beulah radio show. Often typecast as a maid, she said: “I didn’t mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business. But after I did the same thing over and over, I resented it. I didn’t mind being funny, but I didn’t like being stupid.”
She continued as an actress in film in the 1940s then moved to television acting in the 1950s.
McQueen’s first role would become her most identifiable – Prissy, the young maid in Gone with the Wind. She uttered the famous words: “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!” Her distinctive, high-pitched voice was noted by a critic who described it as “the itsy-little voice fading over the far horizon of comprehension”. While the role is well known to audiences, McQueen did not enjoy playing the part and felt it was demeaning to African-Americans.
She also played an uncredited bit part as a sales assistant in The Women (1939), filmed after Gone with the Wind but released before it. She also played Butterfly, Rochester’s niece and Mary Livingstone’s maid in the Jack Benny radio program for a time during World War II. She appeared in an uncredited role in Mildred Pierce (1945) (where she had a good amount of screen time) and played a supporting role in Duel in the Sun (1946). By 1947, she had grown tired of the ethnic stereotypes she was required to play and ended her film career.
During World War II, McQueen frequently appeared as a comedienne on the Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast Jubilee. Many of these broadcasts are available on the Internet Archive.
From 1950 until 1952 she played Oriole, another racially stereotyped role, on the television series Beulah. In a lighter moment, she appeared in a 1969 episode of The Dating Game.
Content: Wikipedia
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