Remembering “Roots” Actress Olivia Cole

Actress Olivia Cole passed away on January 19th at age 75. Cole was well-known for her role as Matilda in the 1979 TV series “Roots,” in which she won an Emmy for best supporting actress.

In “Roots,” which follows the history of an African-American family, Olivia Cole plays wife and mother Matilda. She is a deeply religious character who holds fast to the family’s spiritual legacy. Matilda’s loyalty and commitment to her husband are what inevitably hold the family together through the most trying of times.

In real life, Olivia Cole was instrumental in giving minorities larger roles in movies and TV shows. Cole, and other members of the “Roots” cast, lamented the fact that the acting community didn’t respond to the show by providing more opportunities for African-American actors and actresses.

Cole told ABC News in 2016 that “Roots” was a story every generation should hear. “We need to have these voices out here,” she said. “We need to know where we come from. We need to know how we got here.”

Olivia Cole was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in November of 1942. She attended Bard College in New York and the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in London, where she graduated with honors in 1964. Cole’s first performance was in the TV show “Guiding Light,” followed by appearances in “North and South,” “Christy,” “The Women of Brewster Place,” and “Coming Home.”

Jade Carroll, who produced a play Cole starred in, described her devotion to the characters she played. Cole “lived in roles,” and during one production ate a clove of garlic a day because her character did.

Cole was married for thirteen years to Richard Venture, who died last year. They divorced in 1984.

For the last 35 years, Olivia Cole lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she led a Shakespeare club for three decades. “She once told me that she thought she had done her best work in the Shakespeare group, just because she was learning so much,” Wendy Sievert, a close friend, said. “I think she knew everyone in town.”

While Olivia Cole is best known for her role in “Roots,” one of her most incredible performances is forgotten. In 1979, Ms. Cole portrayed the first black maid to be employed on the presidential floor in NBC’s “Backstairs at the White House.” She was nominated for a second Emmy for this role.

Cole lauded NBC for recognizing talent regardless of color in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The wonderful thing about ‘Backstairs’ is that it offers a challenging role for an actress, not a black actress. If only people would stop thinking in terms of black and white, and think only of who’s the best in terms of ability!”