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Marla Gibbs

Highest Rated: 72% The Visit (2000)

Lowest Rated: 0% Foolish (1999)

Birthday: Jun 14, 1931

Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Marla Gibbs has earned her place in TV history playing Florence Johnston, the less than efficient and always wisecracking maid of George and Louise Jefferson on "The Jeffersons" (CBS, 1975-1985), and as Mary Jenkins, gossipy homemaker and general building yenta on the NBC series "227," which she also co-produced. Acting, let alone stardom, came to Marla Gibbs relatively late. A divorcee with three children, she worked as a receptionist, addressograph operator, switchboard operator, and was a reservations clerk for United Airlines before she even attempted acting professionally. In fact, she left Detroit, where she was working for United Airlines, and transferred to L.A. for the climate and her daughter's schooling. It was when looking into after school activities for her daughter that Gibbs herself signed up for some acting lessons at a performing arts center. She was hooked. Her first role came with the obscure independent film "Sweet Jesus, Preacher Man" (1972), and can also be spotted in the blaxploitation "Black Belt Jones" (1974). In 1975, Gibbs was hired for a guest shot on "The Jeffersons" playing one of the candidates for household domestic nouveau riche George is interviewing over the objections of his wife. Per the script, Gibbs brought down the house when she noticed that African Americans were living in this swanky East Side New York building and asked, "How come we got over and nobody told me?" Norman Lear and the powers at his TAT Communications were so taken by Gibbs, that they hired her as a regular member of the cast where for 11 seasons she shirked her maid duties and insulted Sherman Hemsley, besides earning five Emmy nominations as best supporting actress in a comedy series. Gibbs disappeared for a short while in 1981 when she was given a four-episode tryout on her own series, "Checking In" (CBS), in which Florence becomes supervisor of maid services at a hotel. When the tryout didn't click, she returned to "The Jeffersons." When "The Jeffersons" was cancelled after 11 seasons, Gibbs was ready. She had acquired the rights to a play performed in her native Chicago about an overbearing woman in an apartment building. Gibbs performed the play, also called "227" at her own Crossroads Theatre in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles -- which she had founded in 1981 -- then sold NBC on the concept for a series. The result was "227," which ran on NBC from 1985-1990. Her popularity also made Fox take a look at Gibbs as a possible talk show host and she was one of a revolving number of hosts on "The Late Show" in 1986. Gibbs began in longforms in 1976 with a role in "The Moneychangers" for NBC, and, in 1993, she was a bureaucratic clerk causing problems for Bonnie Bedelia in the miniseries "The Fire Next Time" (CBS). Gibbs also played Natalie Cole's mother in the USA Network original movie "Lily in Winter" (1994), and returned to feature films in 1993 with a cameo in "Meteor Man" for director Robert Townsend. In 1982 Gibbs bought a club on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Los Angeles and renamed it "Marla's." For a good part of a decade it was a meeting place and performance venue for the African American community, in which Gibbs has taken a active role. She has won seven NAACP Image Awards.

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Highest-Rated Movies

72% 45% The Visit
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64% 84% The Brothers
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56% 45% Spirit Halloween: The Movie Watchlist 55% 35% Lemon Watchlist
27% 37% The Meteor Man
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25% 60% Love Jacked
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19% 66% Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection
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13% 28% Lost & Found
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0% 70% Foolish
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83% Stanley's Gig
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
A Snowy Day in Oakland 86% 2023 Mrs. Keys Actor Spirit Halloween: The Movie 56% 45% 2022 Grandma G Actor A Christmas Prayer 2022 Mrs. Gladys Actor She Ball 41% 2020 Mrs. Watts Actor One Fine Christmas 2019 Alice Actor Love Jacked 25% 60% 2018 Rose Actor The Last Revolutionary 2017 Millie Actor You Can't Fight Christmas 24% 2017 Beverly Lawrence Actor Lemon 55% 35% 2017 Lily Actor Second Sight 2016 Nana Actor Who Killed Soul Glow? 2016 Actor The Man in 3B 44% 2015 Ms. Mamie Actor Grantham & Rose 46% 2014 Rose Price Actor Forbidden Woman 2013 Mrs. Simmons Actor Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection 19% 66% 2012 Hattie Actor C'mon Man 33% 2012 Mrs. Crabtree Actor Voices of Leimert 2010 Actor Sunnyview 2010 Mrs. Harris Actor Afro Ninja 2009 Aunt Mary Actor The Brothers 64% 84% 2001 Mary West Actor Stanley's Gig 83% 2000 Eleanor Whitney Actor The Visit 72% 45% 2000 Lois Waters Actor Lost & Found 13% 28% 1999 Enid Actor Foolish 0% 70% 1999 Odetta Actor Lily in Winter 1994 Maize Covington Actor
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