ahar...@earthlink.net ACK! Really sad news. I'm 54 too - how long will I have? Got to enjoy life as much as possible which is really hard with this goddamn economic crisis going on! Amy
> She helped blaze a trail for black women writers in Hollywood, starting > with 'Good Times' in the 1970s. 'Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit' was > among her credits. > > http://uibehai.notlong.com > > From the Los Angeles Times > > Judi Ann Mason dies at 54; playwright and screenwriter > > By Dennis McLellan > > July 16, 2009 > > Judi Ann Mason, an award-winning playwright and a film and television > writer who launched her TV career on the 1970s sitcom "Good Times" and > later co-wrote the 1993 movie comedy "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit," > has died. She was 54. > > Mason died July 8 of a ruptured aorta en route to UCLA Medical Center, > said Phyllis Larrymore Kelly, her manager. > > "She was a trailblazer for the forward progression of African American > writers," film and television writer Tina Andrews told The Times on > Wednesday. "Most particularly, she became that trailblazer for those > African American women writers who came behind her. > > "She was certainly front and center as a role model." > > A Louisiana native, Mason was a 19-year-old student at Grambling State > University when she saw a flier on the theater department bulletin board > announcing the American College Theater Festival's 1975 Norman Lear award > for best original comedy. > > The top prize was $2,500. > > "I said, 'Boy, I could sure use that money,' so I wrote 'Livin' Fat,' and > it won," Mason told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1995. > > Mason's winning play -- about a poor black family facing the moral dilemma > of whether to keep a large sum of money that had unexpectedly come into > its possession -- was produced in New York while she was still in school. > > A few months after graduating in 1977, Mason was in Hollywood writing > scripts for Lear's "Good Times," a show she once described as "comedic > filet mignon." > > "I never saw Judi Ann Mason without a smile," Lear said in an e-mailed > statement released by the Writers Guild of America, West. "She brought it > to her writing and her writing brought the rest of us to laughter. She was > the ultimate upper." > > Mason was born Feb. 2, 1955, in Bossier City, La. > > As a playwright, she wrote more than 25 produced plays, including "A Star > Ain't Nothin' but a Hole in Heaven," which won the first Lorraine > Hansberry Playwriting Award in 1977 for best student-written plays. > > Her play "Daughters of the Mock" -- a south Louisiana-set story about a > mock curse that a Creole grandmother has passed down from generation to > generation to protect the family's women from abusive men -- was first > produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City in 1978 and > reportedly has been performed at women's colleges across the country. > > After writing scripts for "Good Times," Mason went on to write for shows > including "Sanford," and "Beverly Hills, 90120" and co-wrote the 1996 > cable TV movie "Sophie & the Moonhanger." > > Among other things, she also was executive story editor for "A Different > World," executive story editor for "I'll Fly Away," and development > executive and associate head writer for the NBC soap opera "Generations." > > "There weren't many black female writers" in Hollywood when Mason started > in the 1970s, said Andrews, a former actress. Mason, she said, inspired a > number of African American women to become screenwriters. > > Andrews, whose credits include writing the award-winning 2000 CBS > miniseries "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal," is among them. > > She recalled auditioning as an actress for the daytime drama "Generations" > in the late '80s and encountering Mason, whom she had first met in the > '70s. > > "When I saw her sitting behind that desk as somebody in a very powerful > position as now a head writer, I saw what I could be," said Andrews. "And > when I later called her to congratulate her on this big, wonderful job, > she said, 'If you want to write, then write.' She had a very powerful > presence. I said, 'You know, I can do that.' And that's what happened." > > As a writer, Andrews said, Mason "wrote positive, dignified characters, > particularly her black characters. She had strong, realistic dialogue. It > sounded like your sister, your aunt, your girlfriend: It was real, and I > wanted to write like that. That's why she inspired so many of us." > > Mason is survived by her daughter, Mason Synclaire Williams; her son, > Austin Barrett Williams; and her siblings, Viola Mason Johnson, Waletta > "Cookie" Dunn and Willie Gene Mason. > > A memorial service for Mason will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in the Prayer > Chapel on the East Campus of the Church on the Way, 14300 Sherman Way, Van > Nuys. > > dennis.mclel...@latimes.com > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Post your SciFiNoir Profile at > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo! > > Groups Links > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.375 / Virus Database: 270.13.20/2250 - Release Date: 07/20/09 06:16:00
