Biography
Mary Alice (1936–2022) was an American actress whose career spanned theatre, film and television. Born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Mississippi, she trained at Chicago Teacher's College and worked as a schoolteacher in Chicago before moving to New York to pursue acting.
She is known for replacing Gloria Foster as The Oracle in The Matrix Revolutions (2003). Other film roles include Nurse Margaret in Awakenings (1990), a school teacher in Malcolm X (1992) and Effie Williams in Sparkle (1976). On stage she created the role of Rose Maxson in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Fences (1987), winning a Tony Award for best featured actress in a play. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for her recurring role in the series I'll Fly Away and appeared in the television series A Different World.
Alice was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2000. She retired from acting in 2005 and died of natural causes in Manhattan, New York, on 27 July 2022.
