Josephine Premice

Josephine Mary Premice (July 21, 1926 – April 13, 2001) was a Haitian-American actress and singer whose Broadway career spanned from 1945 to 1978. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Premice was the daughter of Thelomaine and Lucas Premice, whose family descended from the Haitian aristocracy. Her ancestor Napoleon Premice was a Haitian-born Black veteran of the U.S. Revolutionary War. Her father, Lucas, held the title Count de Brodequin within the Haitian nobility and participated in a failed attempt to overthrow the Haitian head of state, for which he was imprisoned in Guiana. During his escape, Lucas was chained to a fellow prisoner who died on the third day of their flight through the woods; he was forced to sever the man's arm to free himself from the chains. He subsequently made his way to France, where he learned fur cutting for couturiers, before immigrating to New York in the early 1920s.

Premice and her sister Adele were raised with the education and training of an at-home finishing school, treated as members of an elite class at a time when African Americans faced systemic discrimination even in northern states. Premice later attended Columbia University, where she earned a degree in anthropology, and she was additionally known for her calypso recordings and her distinctive fashion sense.

Her Broadway debut came in 1945 in the revue Blue Holiday, a production choreographed by Katherine Dunham, with whom Premice had studied dance, and featuring Ethel Waters as a co-star. She was also part of the pre-Broadway cast of the musical House of Flowers, which included Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey. In 1957, Premice appeared in the musical Jamaica, playing the role of Ginger alongside leading lady Lena Horne, a performance that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her second Tony nomination in the same category followed her work in A Hand Is on the Gate, in which she performed African American poetry alongside James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, and Gloria Foster. She also appeared in the musical Pal Joey during her Broadway career. Her final Broadway appearance came with the 1976 musical Bubbling Brown Sugar.

Beyond the stage, Premice built a career in film and television. She played Louise Belefonte during the final weeks of the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm and portrayed Ms. Gautier in the 1974 television movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. She guest-starred on The Jeffersons in 1979, playing Louise Jefferson's sister, and appeared on The Cosby Show in 1986. Between 1991 and 1993, she recurred on A Different World, initially as Erdine Abernathy and subsequently as Desiree Porter across several episodes.

Premice was estranged from her husband, Timothy Fales, with whom she had two children, Enrico Fales, born in 1959, and Susan Fales-Hill, born in 1962. In 2003, Fales-Hill published a biography of her mother titled Always Wear Joy: My Mother, Bold and Beautiful. Premice died on April 13, 2001, at her Manhattan residence from complications of emphysema, at the age of 74.