Abernathy, Donzaleigh (Avis)

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ABERNATHY, Donzaleigh (Avis)

PERSONAL:

First name is pronounced "don-za-lay"; daughter of Ralph David (a Baptist minister, Southern Christian Leadership Conference head, and civil rights leader) and Juanita Abernathy; married George C. Bosley, 1989. Education: Attended Northside High School for the Performing Arts, Atlanta, GA, and the George School, PA; Emerson College, graduated.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Merritt Blake, The Blake Agency, 1333 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

CAREER:

Actress. Actress in films, including (as ER nurse) Ghost Dad, Universal, 1990; (as computer hacker) Night of the Running Man, 1994; (under the name Donzaleigh Avis Abernathy; as Walter's mom) Camp Nowhere, Buena Vista, 1994; (as Effie Petit) Lone Justice 2, Triboro Entertainment, 1995; and (as Martha) Gods and Generals, Warner Bros., 2003. Also appeared in 20 Dates, Other People's Money, and Homestead. Production assistant on the film Ghost Dad, Universal, 1990.

Actress in television movies, including (as Sue) Murder in Mississippi, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1990; (as Cora Mae Turner) Grass Roots, 1992; (as MHA) Out of Darkness, 1994; Awake to Murder (also known as Awake to Danger), NBC, 1995; (under the name Donzaleigh Avis Abernathy; as Alcina Lewis) Cagney & Lacey: Together Again, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1995; Abducted: A Father's Love (also known as Fugitive from Justice), NBC, 1996; (as Nurse Betty) Miss Evers' Boys, Home Box Office (HBO), 1997; (as Henrietta King) Don King: Only in America, HBO, 1997; (as Azaleigh) The Tempest, NBC, 1998; The Sky's on Fire (also known as Countdown: The Sky's on Fire), 1998; and (as nurse) Stranger in My House (also known as Total Stranger), Lifetime, 1999.

Actress in television series, including (as Mrs. Sara Jean Jackson) Any Day Now, Lifetime, 1998-2002. Actress in television miniseries, including King, NBC, 1978; and (as Lorrie) Family Album (also known as Danielle Steel's "Family Album"), NBC, 1994. Actress in television pilots, including (as Irene Timmons) Dangerous Minds, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1996. Guest star on television shows, including (as Naomi) "Silence of the Lambskins," L.A. Law, 1992; (as Mariah Henry) "Strike Two," Sirens, ABC, 1993; (as Clarissa Watson) "Endangered Species," Bodies of Evidence, CBS, 1993; "Return to Plum Creek," Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life and Times, CBS, 1993; (as Mrs. Danton) "Guns 'n' Rosaries," NYPD Blue, 1994; (as Irene Timmons) "Need Deep," Dangerous Minds, ABC, 1996; (as Nora Dawson) "Wild Fire," The Burning Zone, UPN, 1997; (as Porschia Tate) "Absent without Leave," Chicago Hope, CBS, 1998; "Hazards," The Pretender, 1998; and (as assistant at Warner Enterprises) "Day 2: 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.," 24, 2003. Also appeared in episodes of EZ Streets and Amazing Grace.

Actress in stage productions, including For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When theRainbow Is Enuf, and Caesar and Cleopatra. Spokes-person about AIDS issues for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

MEMBER:

Founding board, New Roads School.

WRITINGS:

Partners to History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement, foreword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., General Publishing Group (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donzaleigh Abernathy, daughter of the late civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy, witnessed many pivotal moments in the civil rights movement as a child. Her father and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.—whom Rev. Abernathy's children called "Uncle Martin"—were close friends, and with them Abernathy participated in many protests against segregation, including the 1963 march on Washington and the 1965 march from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama. As an adult, Abernathy made for herself a successful career as an actress, often in roles that continued her commitment to the civil rights movement and African-American history. She plays a slave, Martha, in the civil war drama Gods and Generals, and in the Lifetime series Any Day Now, partially set in the early 1960s, she is the wife of a civil rights activist.

Abernathy revisits her childhood experiences in Partners to History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement, which was published in 1998. A combination of family photographs and reminisces from Abernathy, Partners to History "humaniz[es] the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's most visible leaders without diminishing their heroism or moral authority," Mary Carroll wrote in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1998, Mary Carroll, review of Partners to History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement, pp. 35-36.

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), February 21, 2003, Dann Gire, "Actress Puts Herself to the Test in New Civil War Film Gods and Generals, "p. 16.

Ebony, April, 1998, Donzaleigh Abernathy, "Thirty Years after Memphis: If King Were Alive Today, What Would He Say?," pp. 134-138.

Jet, February 26, 1990, "Abernathy's Daughter in NBC Civil Rights Drama," p. 37; August 23, 1992, "Ralph Abernathy's Daughter, Donzaleigh, Gets Role in TV Western Drama, Ned Blessing," pp. 38-39; December 10, 2001, "Civil Rights Daughters Reunited," p. 45.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, December 7, 1998, Ellen Gray, "Lifetime's Any Day Now Is a Project Close to Donzaleigh Abernathy's Heart," p. K2729.

New York, February 5, 1990, John Leonard, review of Murder in Mississippi, p. 82.

New York Times, October 31, 2002, Martin Arnold, "Offspring of the Dream Recount the Struggle," pp. B1, E1.

Variety, December 14, 1998, Laura Fries, review of The Tempest, p. 42.

Westside Life Magazine, August, 2002, Martha Singer, "Donzaleigh Abernathy … Actor, Activist, Author."