Reba the Mail Lady

Background:

Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actress S. Epatha Merkerson was first noticed as the charmingly relaxed and ordinary Reba "the mail lady" on CBS’s widely watched and critically acclaimed children's comedy and variety series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" in the 1980s. She later garnered broader recognition while playing Jerry Orbach's no-nonsense supervisor, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (1993-Present), the longest-running character on the long-running television crime drama “Law & Order.” She also won an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for her performance as the kind-hearted Rachel "Nanny" Crosby on the HBO movie Lackawanna Blues (2005). Her screen credits include She's Gotta Have It (1986), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Loose Cannons (1990), James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991; she played the terrified wife of Joe Morton) and Radio (2003). She will appear in the upcoming films Black Snake Moan and Slipstream.

The 5' 6" acclaimed African-American stage actor with an impassioned and gritty yet approachable style was nominated for a Tony as Best Actress for her performance as Berniece in “The Piano Lesson” and won an Obie Award in 1992 for her work in “I'm Not Stupid.” Her Off-Broadway credits include “Birdie Blue,” “Three Ways Home” and “Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill.”


Sharon Epatha

Childhood and Family:

On November 28, 1952, Sharon Epatha Merkerson was born in Saginaw, Michigan. Her mother, Ann Merkerson, was only female in the vehicles operation unit of the Detroit post office at the time. Her parents, originally from the South and came to Michigan in search of work, separated in 1957.

The youngest of five children, Merkerson grew up in Detroit, where she graduated from Cooley High School in 1970. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in 1975.

In March 1994, Merkerson married Toussaint L. Jones Jr., but divorced on February 14, 2006. Merkerson, who smoked for twenty years before quitting and had a lung-cancer survivor sister, is an outspoken advocate against smoking and for lung cancer research and awareness.


Lackawanna Blues

Career:

Michigan-born S. Epatha Merkerson began applying her craft on New York stage after she moved to the Big Apple in 1978. She worked in children's theater in Albany, New York and had a featured role in the national tour of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf..." In 1984, she appeared at the well known Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam (Connecticut) to play a significant role in a staging of the musical "The Dream Team."

Merkerson got her first breakout role on television as the charmingly relaxed and ordinary Reba "the mail lady" who was often confused with the playhouse rules on CBS’s widely watched and critically acclaimed children's comedy and variety series starring Paul Reubens, "Pee-wee's Playhouse," starting in 1986. She subsequently reprised the role of Reba on several primetime CBS specials.

Meanwhile, Merkerson continued acting on stage. She appeared Off-Off-Broadway at the Hudson Guild Theater in the play, "Moms," and replaced Lonette McKee in the role of Billie Holliday in the Off-Broadway biographical musical drama "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" (both in 1987). She also played the leading role of Berniece, the concerned sister who insists on keeping the family piano in director Lloyd Richards's Broadway staging of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "The Piano Lesson" (1990-1991), which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress (Featured Role - Play). Afterward, she returned to the Off-Broadway stage in "I'm Not Stupid" and won an Obie award for Outstanding Performance in 1992.

Merkerson entered the big screen with a small part in Bob Clark's 1990 comedy film Loose Cannons, starring Dan Aykroyd, Gene Hackman and Nancy Travis. She followed it up with roles in Adrian Lyne's psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder (1990; starring Tim Robbins) and in James Cameron's sci-fi adventure movie about a near-indestructible cyborg starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), in which she played her best-known feature role to date, as the screaming wife of Joe Morton’s character.

On the small screen, Merkerson got her first primetime TV program as series regular in 1993 when she joined cast of NBC's police and courtroom drama "Law & Order," playing Anita Van Buren, the tough lieutenant working on homicide cases after a previous stint in Narcotics. Joining the cast in 1993 (Season 4 of the series) replacing Captain Donald Cragen (played by Dann Florek), Merkerson becomes the longest-running character on the show as she has been staying on the show until now (2007). She also reprised her character on episodes of the ever-persistent spin-offs “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (NBC) and “Law & Order: Trial By Jury” (NBC).

During her long stint on "Law & Order," Merkerson appeared in the TV movies It's Nothing Personal (1993), A Place for Annie (1994) and A Mother’s Prayer (USA; 1995; she played Linda Hamilton’s compassionate nurse), Breaking Through (ABC; 1996; starring Kellie Martin and JoBeth Williams) and An Unexpected Life (USA; 1998). She also guest starred on NBC series “South Beach” and “Frasier.”

She also continued working in films, in the romantic drama Random Hearts (1999; starring Harrison Ford and Kristen Scott Thomas), the sentimental drama based on the true story of a T.L. Hanna High School football coach, Radio (2003), in which she played the loving mom of a mentally-challenged young man (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.), and Kevin Smith’s biggest-budget project to date but ended up underperforming at the box office while receiving many negative reviews, Jersey Girl (2004; starring Ben Affleck; Merkerson played a doctor).

In 2006, Merkerson won a Best Actress Golden Globe Award and a Best Actress Emmy Award in 2005 for her role as the kind-hearted Rachel "Nanny" Crosby who provides a refuge for many wandering black folks whose lives have not quite turned out as they wished in the HBO original movie Lackawanna Blues (2005), based on an Obie award-winning one-man play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Meanwhile, she won her second Village Voice Obie Award in 2006 for her work in "Birdie Blue" in New York City.

Merkerson just completed a romantic drama film by writer-director Craig Brewer, Black Snake Moan, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake. She also just wrapped writer-director-star actor Anthony Hopkins' sci-fi drama/comedy movie, Slipstream, alongside Christian Slater, John Turturro, Stella Arroyave and Lisa Pepper. Additionally, she will return on stage in William Inge's “Come Back, Little Sheba” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in L.A. from June 17th through July 15th, with opening night set for June 24th.

Awards:

• Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• NAACP Image: Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• Black Reel: Best Actress - Television, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• Gracie Allen: Outstanding Female Lead - Miniseries, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• Prism: Performance in a TV-Movie or Miniseries, Lackawanna Blues, 2006
• NAACP Image: Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, "Law & Order," 2006
• Obie: Outstanding Performance, "Birdie Blue," 2006
• SunDeis Film Festival: Entertainer of the Year, 2006
• Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Lackawanna Blues, 2005
• Character and Morality in Entertainment: Camie, Radio, 2005
• Regulus: For her dedication to lung cancer awareness and education, 2002
• Helen Hayes: Outstanding Lead Actress-Resident Play, "The Old Settler," 1999
• Obie: Outstanding Performance, "I'm Not Stupid," 1992