Biography
Maidie Norman, born Maidie Ruth Gamble on October 16, 1912, in Villa Rica, Georgia, was the daughter of Louis and Lila Gamble. She earned a B.A. from Bennett College in 1934 and completed a master's degree at Columbia University in 1937. She also studied at the Actors Lab in Hollywood from 1946 to 1949.
Her film debut came with The Peanut Man in 1947. During the 1950s—a challenging era for black actresses—she appeared in several films, including Bright Road (1953) alongside Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier, Torch Song (1953), About Mrs. Leslie (1954), Susan Slept Here (1954), and Written on the Wind (1956). These roles were often those of servants, reflecting the limited opportunities of the time, yet Norman delivered each with professionalism and skill. In 1962, she had a more prominent role alongside Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Between 1968 and 1969, Norman served as an artist-in-residence at Stanford University. Throughout the 1970s, she worked as a lecturer, director, and acting teacher at UCLA. Concurrently, she maintained a strong television presence, appearing in shows such as Mannix, Adam 12, Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, The Jeffersons, and others. In 1979, she was featured in Roots: The Next Generation.
Norman was a founding member of the American Negro Theater West. She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1977, and UCLA annually presents an award in her name for outstanding undergraduate research in Black Theater. She passed away on May 6, 1998.
