Frances Foster

Frances Helen Foster (née Brown; June 11, 1924 – June 17, 1997) was an American film, television and stage actress. In addition to being an actress, Foster was also an award–winning stage director and an original member of the Negro Ensemble Company. Moreover, in 1955, she became the first African American to appear in a nationally broadcast television commercial.

Life and career Foster was born in Yonkers, New York, From 1949 through 1952, she studied acting at American Theatre Wing in Manhattan; three years later, she made her stage debut as Dolly May in The Wisteria Trees at the City Center Theater. That same year, several black-owned papers reported that Foster had, on Procter & Gamble's behalf, gained the distinction of being the first African American to appear in a nationally aired television commercial. Many years later, in the days following her death, the New York Amsterdam News noted that Foster took great pride in being the one who had broken that barrier. performing in over 25 of its productions from 1967 to 1986. She won a 1985 Obie Award for sustained excellence of performance. She was also a recipient of two AUDELCO Awards, one as an actress and the other as a director for work at the New Federal Theatre in Manhattan. In 1978, she received the best actress award for Do Lord Remember Me, and the best director award in 1983 for Hospice. From 1983 until her own death, she was married to Morton Goldsen, acquiring three stepchildren from his previous marriage in the process. On September 15 a memorial service was conducted in Harlem at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Foster's remains are interred at the Pine Lawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. Miss Sadie Delany (standby) Booth Theatre The Young Man from Atlanta Clara Signature Theatre 1992 Malcolm X Woman Outside Audubon Ballroom 1990 Ground People Viola America Place Theatre 1986 House of Shadows Cassie America Place Theatre 1982 Do Lord Remember Me Unknown American Place Theatre 1980 Zooman and the Sign Ash Boswell Theatre Four 1978 Nevis Mountain Dew Everelda Philibert Griffin St. Mark's Playhouse 1979 Drama Desk Award nomination, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play 1975 The First Breeze of Summer Gremmer Palace Theatre 1972 The River Niger Grandma Wilhelmina Brown St. Mark's Playhouse Rosalee 'Rose' Pritchett St. Mark's Playhouse 1970 The Good Woman of Setzuan Mrs. Mi Tzu Vivian Beaumont Theater 1968 Kongi's Harvest Ogbo AweriSegi St. Mark's Playhouse

Day of Absence SupervisorAide St. Mark's Playhouse Program of two one-act plays by Douglas Turner Ward. Happy Ending Mrs. Ash Pocket Theatre 1959 A Raisin in the Sun Ruth Younger (understudy)Beneatha Younger (understudy) Ethel Barrymore TheatreBelasco Theatre 1956 Take a Giant Step Violet Jan Hus Playhouse 1955 The Wisteria Trees Dolly May City Center Theater