Where Are They Now: The Cast of Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
The biopic on the legendary actress premiered 15 years ago.
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Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) - This television biopic of the groundbreaking '50s-era actress was an awards magnet and put its lead actress, a young Halle Berry, on the map. The film was nominated for three Golden Globes, including a Best Actress win for Berry, and won six Emmy Awards. 15 years after its first telecast, we look back on where the filmmakers and cast of Introducing Dorothy Dandridge are now. (Photo: HBO)
Photo By Photo: Courtesy of HBO
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Shonda Rhimes - Before she became the face of primetime, Rhimes wrote the teleplay for this event biopic. Of course, Rhimes's stock in Hollywood has skyrocketed in the 15 years since. The celebrated showrunner has created more hit primetime shows than almost anyone of her generation, including Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and, of course, Scandal. Rhimes is poised for a four-peat this fall when her new series How to Get Away With Murder, starring Viola Davis, premieres. (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Loretta Devine - Devine was already an established actress when she portrayed Dandridge's mother, Ruby Dandridge, in the film. The veteran of film, television and Broadway hasn't slowed down one bit. She starred in the popular series Boston Public and, in 2005, reunited with Dandridge writer Rhimes for a recurring role on Grey's Anatomy, for which she won an Emmy Award. She's also starred in dozens of feature films, including Jumping the Broom, Crash and For Colored Girls. (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Photo By Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
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Obba Babatunde - Babatunde played Dandridge's first husband in the film. Though the actor is perhaps best known for his roles on soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children, he has appeared in dozens of films since his work on Dandridge, including The Notebook, The Manchurian Candidate and Black Dynamite. (Photo: Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for the Pantages Theatre)
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Brent Spiner - This veteran actor portrayed Dandridge's longtime manager Earl Mills, who found her body in her Los Angeles home after she had died. Already a respected working actor with dozens of film and television roles under his belt by the time he came to Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Spiner continued to build his resume on strong work like Star Trek: Enterprise and The Aviator. The character actor was most recently seen on the Showtime series Ray Donovan. (Photo: Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
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Cynda Williams - As Dandridge's older sister Vivian, Williams stole scenes in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Williams seemed to be a favorite of Black cinema in the 1990s, with roles in Mo' Betta Blues and Black Rose of Harlem, to name a few, and though she has worked steadily since, her acting career never really took off the way her co-star Berry's did. She and her husband Roderick Plummer moved to Singapore in the mid-2000s, where he taught film and she dabbled in stage performances. The couple now live in Chicago, where Williams is active in the theater scene. (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
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LaTanya Richardson - While she's best known as Samuel L. Jackson's better half, Richardson is an actor in her own right. After playing Dandridge's auntie in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Richardson enjoyed steady roles in films like The Fighting Temptations and Mother and Child. An accomplished stage performer, Richardson was nominated for a Tony Award this year for her role in A Raisin in the Sun. (Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
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Martha Coolidge (Director) - A leading director in Hollywood at a time when female filmmakers were even more rare than they are now, Coolidge came to Dandridge with an impressive resume of films, including Valley Girl, Joy of Sex and Real Genius. Though she's been directing for television and has made a few films in the years since, her most significant work was definitely in the 1980s and '90s. (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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Klaus Maria Brandauer - The Austrian actor was an Oscar nominee (for Out of Africa) when he took on the role of Dandridge's director and lover Otto Preminger. In the years since, he has mostly worked in films and television in Europe. (Photo: WENN.com)