Roots star Olivia Cole dies

Emmy-winning Roots actress Olivia Cole has died at the age of 75.
She passed away at her home in Mexico on 19 January (18), her agent, Susie Schwarz, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cole grew up in Harlem, New York, and honed her acting skills at New York’s liberal arts school Bard College and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
She made her Broadway debut in 1966 in a revival of The School for Scandal, before scoring a role on U.S. soap opera Guiding Light.
Cole became known for her work on Alex Haley’s Roots, portraying the character Matilda – a performance which earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series in 1977.
She also starred in 1970s mini-series Backstairs at the White House, which earned her a second Emmy nomination in 1979.
Her other TV credits included the shortlived sitcom Szysznyk, Report to Murphy, L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, and mini-series The Women of Brewster Place, in which she appeared alongside Oprah Winfrey.
Cole also had movie roles in the Oscar-nominated Coming Home, Richard Pryor’s Some Kind of Hero, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and in rapper/actor Ice Cube’s First Sunday.
Cole wed Scent of a Woman actor Richard Venture in 1971 but the union ended in divorced in 1984. He died last month (Dec17), aged 94.