Biography

Slender, attractive actress Margaret Avery, spellbinding in her role of Shug in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), is certainly no "one-hit wonder". Although filmgoers may be able to trace her back only to that once-in-a-lifetime part, Margaret has been a talented player on the large and small screens for well over three decades. Born on January 20, 1944, in Mangum, Oklahoma, the daughter of a Navy man, she was raised in San Diego, California, where she completed high school. Margaret demonstrated a certain passion for acting while in her teens but decided to pursue a more stable career in teaching. Graduating from San Francisco State University, she joined the Los Angeles public school system as a substitute teacher, but the "acting bug" continued to nibble away at her. She auditioned for commercials on the sly and managed to also segued into stage work and singing jobs. Her early 1970s L.A. plays included "Revolution", "Sistuhs", and 1973's "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?", t

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Filmography