Myrtle Anderson

Myrtle Anderson (1901–1978) was a Jamaican-born actress, singer, and radio performer whose career spanned Broadway, film, and radio across several decades. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Charles Anderson and Cecilia Tyrell, she relocated to Manhattan with her mother and sisters at the age of five. Anderson went on to graduate from Columbia University and performed with the Johnson Singers before establishing herself as a professional entertainer in New York City.

Her Broadway career ran from 1935 to 1943 and included appearances in Run, Little Chillun and The Green Pastures. The latter production was a film adaptation as well, and Anderson appeared in the 1936 screen version of The Green Pastures, playing Eve in the all-black cast retelling of biblical stories. That film role marked the beginning of her work in Hollywood, where she accumulated credits across more than two decades.

Anderson's personal life during the early part of her career included a marriage to a police officer named Henry Simms, whom she wed in 1930. Simms was subsequently charged with bigamy in 1935, as he had been married to another woman at the time of their union. During the marriage, Anderson had briefly considered pursuing a career as a policewoman. She also established her own radio program in New York City during this period.

Her film work extended from 1936 through 1957 and included Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Sea of Grass (1947), Whirlpool (1949), White Witch Doctor (1953), and Jeanne Eagels (1957), among others. During World War II, Anderson served in the Women's Army Corps. In the later years of her career, she divided her time between film roles and employment at a post office in Los Angeles, California. Regarding her screen prospects, she expressed a preference for comedic parts, noting that she was, in her own words, too thin for mammy roles and insufficiently glamorous to follow the path of performers such as Lena Horne.