Helen Martin

Helen Dorothy Martin (July 23, 1909 – March 25, 2000) was an American actress whose career in stage, film, and television extended across more than six decades. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, as the only child of a musical family. Her parents hoped she would pursue a career as a concert pianist, and at their encouragement she enrolled at Fisk University. She left before completing her degree to pursue acting. During the Great Depression, Martin supported herself through domestic work while building toward a performance career.

After departing college, Martin relocated first to Chicago and then to New York City, where she trained with the WPA Theater and the Rose McClendon Players. She became a founding member of the American Negro Theater in Harlem, an institution central to the development of Black theatrical talent in the mid-twentieth century. Her Broadway debut came in 1937 with Orchids Preferred, and she continued performing on Broadway through 1973, accumulating credits across roughly a dozen productions over that span.

Among her notable stage appearances was Orson Welles's 1941 production of Native Son, in which she played Vera Thomas. She appeared in Jean Genet's The Blacks and Tennessee Williams's Period of Adjustment in 1960, the same year she also appeared in The Long Dream. In 1961 she played Missy Judson in Ossie Davis's Purlie Victorious, and when the show was adapted into the musical Purlie, she returned to the production in 1970 as Idelia. Additional Broadway credits include My Mother, My Father and Me in 1963, in which she played Hannah; The Amen Corner in 1965, where she portrayed Sister Douglas; Something Different in 1967 as Sarah Goldfine; and the musical Raisin, which she joined in 1973 playing Mrs. Johnson and remained with through 1975.

Martin's visibility expanded considerably through television. From 1974 to 1979 she appeared on the CBS sitcom Good Times as Wanda Williams, a recurring character known by the nickname "Weeping Wanda." She later took on the role of Pearl Shay, a neighbor, on the NBC sitcom 227, a part she held from 1985 to 1990. She also appeared in the short-lived sitcoms Baby, I'm Back, in which she played the mother-in-law Luzelle, and That's My Mama.

Her film work included a range of grandmother roles. She appeared in Hollywood Shuffle in 1987, House Party 2 in 1991, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood in 1996, I Got the Hook Up in 1998, and Bulworth in 1998, in which she played a character named Mama Doll. During a promotional appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for Don't Be a Menace, Martin drew a strong reaction from the host and studio audience when she declared "I love reefer!" in response to a question about her role as a marijuana-smoking grandmother in the film, and followed the exchange with a suggestive dance after remarking she might have become a stripper had she not chosen acting.

Martin died of a heart attack on March 25, 2000, in Monterey, California. She was 90 years old.