Lillian Randolph: Movies & Box Office

**Lillian Randolph** (born *Castello Randolph* on December 14, 1898 in Knoxville, Tennessee) was a pioneering African‑American actress and singer whose career spanned more than five decades, from the early days of network radio to the golden age of television. The daughter of a Methodist minister and a teacher, she grew up in a household that valued performance; her older sister, Amanda Randolph, also pursued acting. Randolph first cut her teeth on local stations in Cleveland and Detroit, where she was discovered by George W. Trendle of *The Lone Ranger* fame. After intensive dialect coaching, she secured regular roles on Detroit radio before moving to Los Angeles in 1936, where she joined Al Jolson’s show, appeared on *Big Town* and the Al Pearce program, and sang at the legendary Club Alabam. Her warmth and unmistakable laugh earned her the part of Birdie Lee Coggins on *The Great Gildersleeve* radio series, a role she would reprise in the subsequent television adaptation, and she also became a staple voice on the *Amos ’n’ Andy* show as Madame Queen.

Randolph’s film résumé includes iconic turns such as Annie in *It’s a Wonderful Life* (1946) and Bessie in *The Bachelor and the Bobby‑Soxer* (1947), while her uncredited voice work as the maid Mammy Two Shoes in nineteen *Tom and Jerry* cartoons became both a hallmark and a source of controversy during the civil‑rights era. In the 1950s she released a gospel album after a popular TV performance of “*Were You There*,” and she broke barriers by becoming the first African American on the board of the Hollywood chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she appeared on *The Bill Cosby Show*, *Sanford and Son*, *The Jeffersons*, and the miniseries *Roots*. Recognized for her contributions, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1980, the same year she died of cancer in Arcadia, California, leaving behind two children, including performer Barbara Randolph, and a legacy of resilience and talent that helped pave the way for future generations of Black entertainers.