More Than One Life To Live: Phylicia Rashad, From Lawyer to Lesbian

1 Posted by - January 8, 2023 - BLACK WOMEN, LATEST POSTS

Come on, admit it. When you hear the name Phylicia Rashad, you can’t help but get all nostalgic. With that sparkling smile (her father and first husband were both dentists) and classy hair and makeup, Phylicia never fails to look age appropriate, polished, and sophisticated.  Comfortable in her own skin, Phylicia has been known to downplay her flawless good looks by saying,  “It’s not about the way you look, it’s about the way you are. It’s not about how I look, it’s about the way I am.”

The actress  started her career in the theater in the 1970s, moved to the soaps in the early ’80s, when she portrayed a lawyer on One Life to Live. Best remembered for her role as the no-nonsense mom and attorney Clair Huxtable, on The Cosby Show, Phylicia is one timeless beauty.

Rashad continued to appear on television throughout the 1990s, often in made-for-TV movies that ranged from ill-conceived thrillers like The Babysitter’s Seduction (1996) to more dramatic fare that ran close to Rashad’s heart, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1987) and Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored (1995)

Rashad has performed in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway shows throughout her career, including Jelly’s Last Jam and Dreamgirls. In 2003, she won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, becoming the first black woman to win the coveted honor for a dramatic lead role. in 2008, she revisited the role in a television adaption for which she earned the 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special.
Phylicia Rashad has recently joined For Justice, a CBS drama pilot in which she’ll play a lesbian FBI agent, potentially shattering the Claire Huxtable image that has recently been as much of a curse as a gift.

Variety reports ,Rashad will play Georgina Howe, the head of the FBI’s Civil Rights Division and a “savvy Washington player” experienced in DC’s bare-knuckle brawling after a career spent overcoming discrimination based on her race and sexual orientation.  For Justice would be her first time in the main cast of a television series since CBS’s Cosby.

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 The Beautiful Face of Phylicia Rashad

 

 

 

2 Comments

  • R Washington July 16, 2019 - 12:11 pm

    I’ve always loved this woman! She is an actress of renown, and in her own right–independent of sister Debbie’s fame. I’ll be watching For Justice, just as religiously as I did The Cosby Show/Cosby.

  • Walter Fox July 17, 2019 - 12:02 am

    Her Grandmother-the dentist mother-is largely responsible for my mom joining the Episcopal church. She used to go to Prairie View, Texas, about 45 miles from Houston, and bring students and others down to St. Luke’s in the “Third Ward” back in the 1940s. I’m still an Episcopalian in St. Louis.