Note: this page has been updated with NEW info
HERE!
The
first African-American to become
Miss America, Vanessa was also the first to
lose the crown due to the publication of nude photos taken a couple of years prior to her entry into the competition. (She has since been
reinstated as the official winner for 1984!)
For most people, that would've been the end of their career. But not Vanessa..
Since then, she's had a number of best-selling vocal albums, performed to rave reviews in several Broadway shows including
Kiss of the Spider Woman,
Into the Woods, and
Carmen Jones, and appeared in theatrical and tv movies ranging from drama (
Soul Food) to musicals (
Bye, Bye, Birdie) as well as performing on soundtracks of a number of films including
Pocahontas!
Her greatest success has been a tour-de-force performance as scheming editor
Wilhelmina Slater on the ongoing
Ugly Betty tv series.
She'll be doing genre again, as her schedule permits...
Trivia: Vanessa turned down the lead in
Monster's Ball which was then offered to Halle Berry, who won the Oscar for it! Hey, nobody's perfect!
Genre appearances include
A Diva's Christmas Carol (Ebony Scrooge)
Shaft (Det. Carmen Vasquez)
BoomTown (Det. Katherine Pierce)
WWIII aka
Winds of Terror (MJ Blake)
Adventures of Elmo in GrouchLand (Queen of Trash)
The Odyssey (Calypso)
FutureSport (Alexandra Torres aka Alex)
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 "Let He Who is Without Sin" (Arandis)
Hoodlum (Francine Hughes)
Eraser (Lee Cullen)
T.J. Hooker "Partners in Death"
Partners in Crime "Celebrity"
Check out...
Vanessa's Official Site
Vanessa Williams Music
Last night, just as we were about to keyboard Kandyse into our Fantastic Femmes section of the blog, her character, Anastasia Dualla, committed suicide in BSG's final season opener, "Sometimes a Great Notion".
(Dorothy Gale)
: Grace Wheeler, Zooey Deschanel, Alexis Llewellen, Rachel Patee (Dorothy at various ages)
(Broadway): Stephanie Mills
(1964) Susan Conway
