Over the weekend, many are mourning the death of legendary New Orleans actress Carol Sutton. After spending time in the hospital, Sutton died Thursday from COVID-19 complications; she was 76.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell remembers Sutton as the “Queen of New Orleans Theatre” in a lengthy Twitter post.
“Having graced the stages across the city for decades,” Cantrell wrote. “The world may recognize her from her performances in movies and on TV — whether it’s ‘Treme’ or ‘Claws,’ or ‘Runaway Jury’ or ‘Queen Sugar’ — but we will always remember her commanding stage presence, her richly portrayed characters, and the warm heart she shared with her fellow cast and crew in productions such as ‘4000 Miles’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ May she rest in God’s perfect peace.”
As an effort to be more inclusive on stage and accurately portray the Black experience, the Dashiki Project Theatre invited Sutton to join them in 1960, which started her career.
Sutton’s on-screen debut came in 1974 with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, where she played “the life of a black woman born into slavery and became part of the US civil rights movement.”
Her most famous role came in 1989 when she portrayed Nurse Pam in the film Steel Magnolias alongside Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts.
In 2011, she starred in The Help, another race-related film. Most recently, Sutton appeared in episodes on True Detective, HBO’s Lovecraft County, and Queen Sugar.
Ava DuVernay, director of Queen Sugar, took to Twitter to remember the actress. “On behalf of od the Queen Sugar family, we celebrate the life of the stellar Carol Sutton,” DuVernay wrote. “May she rise and rest in peace and power.”
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1337562418319265792?s=20
As a recipient of a New Orleans Lifetime Achievement Award,” her abilities as a performer were widely praised by those in the industry,” BBC wrote.
“Among actors in New Orleans, there was Carol Sutton – and there was everybody else,” a New Orleans Times-Picayune critic wrote.
