Biographie
Hilda Simms, born Hilda Moses in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was one of nine children. Before pursuing acting, she intended to become a teacher. She enrolled at the University of Minnesota but had to leave due to financial difficulties. Moving to New York, she acted in radio dramas and joined the American Negro Theater, gaining professional experience. At the theater, she also worked on sound effects, props, and publicity while honing her craft. In New York, she met and married William Simms, adopting his surname.
Her marriage to Simms was brief. In 1943, two years after their divorce, Hilda debuted in the title role of Philip Yordan's play, "Anna Lucasta." Originally written for an all-white cast, the play gained significant attention when produced by the American Negro Theater. Hilda portrayed a young woman striving to regain her dignity and reunite with her family after a life of prostitution. The production moved to Broadway in 1944, becoming one of the first dramas featuring African American actors in roles unrelated to race. Hilda performed alongside notable black actors such as Rosetta LeNoire, Canada Lee, Frederick O'Neal, Alice Childress, and Earle Hyman. The play was a season hit, and Hilda's striking image appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.
While touring internationally, Hilda continued her role in Anna Lucasta and pursued a singing career in Paris nightclubs under the name Julie Riccardo. During the 1947 British tour, she met and married veteran actor Richard Angarola. Returning to the U.S. in the 1950s, she briefly entered film, co-starring with boxing champion Joe Louis as his wife in The Joe Louis Story (1953). Her only other film role was a hatcheck girl in Black Widow (1954). Anna Lucasta was filmed twice: first in 1949 with Paulette Goddard and Broderick Crawford, and again in 1958 starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr. Earle Hyman declined to participate in the latter, believing Hilda was the definitive Anna Lucasta.
In the 1950s, Hilda became a victim of the Hollywood blacklist. In 1955, the Department of Justice denied her a passport and canceled her 14-week USO tour in Europe, despite her previous wartime entertainment and War Bond efforts. The cancellation stemmed from suspicions about her alleged Communist Party ties in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This severely limited her career opportunities and ended her chances in film. In 1960, she wrote an article titled "I'm No Benedict Arnold" to share her perspective.
Hilda continued her stage work in productions like The Cool World, Tambourines to Glory, and a revival of The Madwoman of Chaillot. She was a regular on the television series The Nurses (1962) and hosted the radio show Ladies Day on New York's WOV. An active political participant, she served as Creative Arts Director for the New York State Human Rights Commission, raising awareness about discrimination against black actors and helping improve film roles for prominent African American performers of the time. She fulfilled her teaching aspirations by earning a master's degree in education from the City College of New York. Hilda also worked in drug treatment programs and remained active in theatre until her death from pancreatic cancer in Buffalo, New York, at age seventy-five. Her life’s tragedy lies in how politics and racism of the era prevented wider recognition of her remarkable talent.
