Olga James
Actor
- Born
- February 16, 1929 · Washington, D.C., United States of America
- Died
- January 25, 2025 (age 95)
Olga James Adderley-Chandler (February 16, 1929 – January 25, 2025) was born into a musical family – her father played the saxaphone, her mother was a dancer – James would attend Julliard in New York City where she studied opera. She made her professional debut in 1952 in Paris, performing in the opera Four Saints in Three Acts.
After returning to America, James was hired to perform in the all-Black revue at Atlantic City’s Club Harlem. It was while performing in the revue that she got an audition for Preminger’s Carmen Jones, an all-Black musical based on Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, landing the role of Cindy Lou, the fiancée of Belafonte’s Joe.
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Two years after Carmen Jones, James gave her first and only Broadway performance in 1956’s Mr. Wonderful, playing the character Ethel Pearson, who sings the title song.
Through her high-profile performances in film and on Broadway, James became a prolific and popular nightclub performer. She met and, in 1962, married the saxophonist Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, their union lasting until his death in 1975. In 1990, James married singer and civil rights activist Len Chandler, who died in 2023.
Known for
Acting4
- 2009Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s as Self
- 2009Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1950s: The Golden Era of the Musical as Self
- 2003Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty as Cindy Lou (archive footage)
- 1954Carmen Jones as Cindy Lou