Phylicia Rashād (born Phylicia Ayers-Allen on June 19, 1948) is a Tony Award-winning American actress, perhaps best known for her role as Clair Huxtable in the 1980s television series The Cosby Show.

Biography

Rashād was born in Harris County, Texas, to Andrew Arthur Allen, a full-blooded Cherokee, and Vivian Ayersan, an African American. Arthur was a dentist and Vivian was a Pulitzer-prize nominated artist, poet, playwright, and publisher. Rashād's siblings are jazz-musician brother Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen Jr, born 1945), sister Debbie Allen (1950), and brother Hugh Allen (real estate banker in North Carolina). Debbie Allen is an actress, choreographer, and director. While Rashād was growing up, her family moved to Mexico to escape U.S. racism; as a result, Rashād speaks both English and Spanish fluently.

She graduated from Howard University, where she later taught drama, and is a member of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. Rashād first became notable on the stage with a string of Broadway credits, including Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (she was Sheryl Lee Ralph's understudy until she left the show in 1982 after Rashad was passed over as Ralph's full-time replacement) and playing a Munchkin in The Wiz. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco concept record telling the life story of Josephine Baker. The album was mainly written and produced by Jacques Morali and Rashād's one-time husband Victor Willis, lead singer and lyricist of the Village People. Rashād received another career boost when she joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live in 1983.

Rashād is best known for another television role, that of attorney Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. The show starred Bill Cosby as obstetrician Cliff Huxtable, and focused on their life with their five children.

When Cosby returned to TV comedy in 1996 with CBS's Cosby, he called on Rashād to play Ruth Lucas, his character's wife. The pilot episode had been shot with Telma Hopkins, but Cosby then fired the executive producer and replaced Hopkins with Rashād. The sitcom ran from 1996 to 2000. That year, Cosby asked Rashād to work on his animated television series Little Bill, in which the actress voiced Bill's mother, Brenda, until the show's end in 2002.

In 2003, she was honored as Woman of the Year by the Harvard Black Men's Forum. In 2005, Rashād received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) degree from Brown University. She played Kill Moves' mother on Everybody Hates Chris on Sunday, December 9 2007.

In 2008, she appeared in the television adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. She currently stars on Broadway as Big Mama in an all-African American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by her sister Debbie Allen. She appears alongside stage veterans James Earl Jones (Big Daddy) and Anika Noni Rose (Maggie), as well as film actor Terrence Howard, who makes his Broadway debut as Brick.

Personal life

Rashād's first marriage, in 1972, was to dentist William Lancelot Bowles, Jr. They had one son, William Lancelot Bowles III, who was born the following year. This marriage ended in 1975. Rashād married Victor Willis (of the Village People) in 1978. They divorced in 1980. Phylicia married former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashād on December 14, 1985, it was a third marriage for both of them and she took his adopted last name. They were married after he proposed to her during a pregame show on a nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game between the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions on November 28, 1985. Their daughter, Condola Phylea Rashād, was born on December 11, 1986 in New York City. Along with her son, William, Rashād also has three stepchildren (Ahmad's from a previous marriage): daughters Keva (born in 1970) and Maiysha (born in 1974), and son Ahmad Jr. (born in 1978). The couple divorced in 2001.

Awards

• Rashād received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, for The Cosby Show. She also received an Emmy award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for A Raisin in the Sun in 2008.
• In 2004, Rashād became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun. She was nominated for the same award the following year, for Gem of the Ocean.

References

• Broadway.com: "Phylicia Rashad", by Beth Stevens
• The Al Sharpton Show: "Motherhood with Phylicia Rashād" (audio interview)

External links

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof All African-American production website