GUYANESE CELEBRITIES ABROAD

GUYANESE CELEBRITIES ABROAD

Patricia Liverpool © May 31-2019

On Sunday, May 26-2019 Guyana (the former British Guiana) celebrated 53 years of political independence. British Guiana was also known as the land of many waters and the land of six people (Africans, Amerindians, Chinese, East Indians, Europeans and Portuguese) with the nine groups of Amerindians (Arawaks, Arecunas, Akawaios, Caribs, Macushis, Patamonas, Wapisianas, Warraus and Wai-Wais) being the indigenous people of the land. Over the years many Guyanese have left and enjoyed success abroad. Here are four Guyanese who have achieved success in various fields outside of Guyana.

GODFREY CAMBRIDGE 

Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge was born in New York City on February 26, 1933, to Alexander and Sarah Cambridge, who were immigrants from (British Guiana) Guyana. His parents, sent him to live with his grandparents in Sydney, Nova Scotia to attend elementary school because they were dissatisfied with the New York Public School System. When he was 13, Cambridge returned to New York and attended Flushing High School in Flushing, Queens. In 1949 he received a four-year scholarship to study medicine at Hofstra College, which he attended for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in acting.

In 1962, Cambridge was nominated for a Tony Award as part of the cast of “Purlie Victorious.” He appeared in several films including: The Last Angry Man (1959), The President's Analyst (1967), The Busy Body (1967), The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), Watermelon Man (1970), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), Friday Foster (1975), The Biscuit Eater (1972), Beware! The Blob (1972) and Whiffs (1975.)

In addition to acting, Cambridge had major success as a stand-up comedian. By 1965 he was earning "as much as $4,000 a week headlining venues such as San Francisco's 'hungry i' and Hollywood's 'Crescendo'.' He appeared on The Tonight Show. Cambridge reached his largest television audience in a series of comical commercials for Jockey underwear. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by Time magazine in 1965 as "one of the country's four most celebrated Negro comedians." Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge transitioned to the ancestral realm on November 29-1976.

He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles.

NORMAN LUGARD BEATON 

Norman Lugard Beaton was born in Georgetown, Guyana on October 31-1934. He attended the prestigious secondary school “Queen's College” in Georgetown, Guyana and later, the Government Teachers' Training College and graduated with distinction. Beaton taught at Providence School, East Bank, Demerera, and at Cane Grove Anglican School on the East Coast. He also worked for “Radio Demerera” and for a local newspaper, as well as playing with a calypso band, The Four Bees. He achieved the position of deputy headmaster at Cane Grove Anglican School before leaving Guyana for London in 1960. He then landed a job as a teacher in Liverpool, becoming the first African teacher to be employed by the Liverpool Education Authority. Beaton would soon become frustrated with his job as a teacher and began writing plays. His first play the musical Jack of Spades centered on the doomed relationship between an African man and a white woman. The moderate success gave Beaton enough confidence to give up teaching to concentrate on the theater. In the early seventies, Beaton began to perform in plays in London's West End. In 1970 he played the role of Ariel in Shakespeare's The Tempest, which he described in his autobiography as "the most important role of my acting career." In 1975, he helped to establish the Black Theatre of Brixton. In 1976, Beaton broke into television in the series The Fosters. In 1977, he played the lead role in “Black Joy” for which he was named Film Actor of the Year in 1978 by the Variety Club of Great Britain. He also appeared in the BBC TV series Empire Road (written by African Guyanese writer, Michael Abbensetts) which ran from 1978-1979. However, it was his role (January 5-1989-December 19-1994) as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series Desmond's that would become his most well-known role. In 1986, Beaton published his autobiography “Beaton but Unbowed.” In 1991 he appeared as a guest on The Cosby Show, in the episode: "There's Still No Joy in Mudville".) He also appeared in several movies including The Mighty Quinn (1989). Norman Lugard Beaton transitioned to the ancestral realm on December 13-1994 in Georgetown, Guyana.

CAROL CHRISTINE HILARIA POUNDER

Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder (CCH Pounder) was born in Georgetown, (British Guiana) Guyana on December 25-1952 was born to Ronald Urlington Pounder and Betsy Enid Arnella James Pounder. She and her sister were sent to a convent boarding school in England. Following high school graduation went to New York and studied at Ithaca College, where her acting talents were discovered.

Pounder made her acting debut in the film All That Jazz (1979.) She moved to Los Angeles in 1982. In 1987, Pounder starred in the film Bagdad Café. In the early 1980s, Pounder first appeared in guest roles on Hill Street Blues, and then on several popular shows (The Cosby Show, RoboCop 3, L.A. Law, The X-Files, Living Single, and Quantum Leap) before landing a long-running recurring role as Dr. Angela Hicks on ER, from 1994 to 1997. In 1994, CCH Pounder earned an Emmy nomination for her stint on the hospital drama "ER." In the midst of this she co-starred in the Tales From the Crypt feature film Demon Knight (1995). In 1997, CCH Pounder was winner of the prestigious Caribbean American Heritage Award for Excellence in the Arts presented by leading Caribbean American advocacy organization Institute of Caribbean Studies based in Washington DC. She has made guest appearances on several shows, including The Practice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Millennium, The West Wing and Women in Prison. From 2002 to 2008, she starred as Detective Claudette Wyms in the FX Networks police drama The Shield. In 2009, she starred as Mo'at in James Cameron's film Avatar. She starred in recurring roles as Mrs. Irene Frederic on the series Warehouse 13 and DA Thyne Patterson on the FX series Sons of Anarchy. Since 2014, she has portrayed medical examiner Dr. Loretta Wade on NCIS: New Orleans. In 1989, CCH Pounder was one of the founders of Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA.)

VALERIE ANN AMOS

Valerie Ann Amos was born on March 13-1954 in (British Guiana) Guyana in South America. She is one of three children born to Edward and Eunice Amos who were both teachers in Guyana. Her family moved to Britain when she was nine years old, where her father was attending university. They settled in Belvedere, a town in the southeastern English county of Kent. Amos thrived at the Townley grammar school in Bexleyheath, where she was the first African student in her school, earning top grades and excelling in sports. Her parents hoped she would enter medicine or law, but Amos chose a sociology course at the University of Warwick in central England, where she completed a degree in Sociology at the University of Warwick (1973–76.) She later took courses in cultural studies at the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia and took a job as a researcher. She is a British Labour Party politician and life peer, formerly serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first African woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, Amos became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1989-94. In 1995 Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

She left the cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. She was then nominated to become the European Union special representative to the African Union by Gordon Brown. However after an independent selection process, Belgian diplomat Koen Vervaeke was chosen to represent the EU in Addis Ababa. In 2007, Baroness Amos was voted the "Most Influential Black Woman in the UK" by the New Nation newspaper.

She was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. On July 1-2010, Amos received an honorary Doctorate of the University from the University of Stirling in recognition of her "outstanding service to our society and her role as a model of leadership and success for women today." She was also awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Warwick in 2000 and the University of Leicester in 2006. At the University of Birmingham Guild of Students (where she studied), one of the committee rooms is named "The Amos Room" after her, in acknowledgement of her services to society.

Patricia Liverpool © May 31-2019