L. Scott Caldwell (born Laverne Scott, born 1950) is an American actress best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost.
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Early life
Born inl Chicago, Illinois, to working-class parents, Laverne Scott grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side. At a high enrollment elementary school, she attended the morning session, and her older siblings went to school in the afternoon. When the school released her at noon she was escorted to a neighborhood theater where she was minded by a friend of her mother. While attending Hyde Park High School, she joined the drama club.
Her class went to see a performance of A Day of Absence, featuring Douglas Turner Ward, a co-founder of The Negro Ensemble Company. It was the first time she saw professional black actors on stage. After graduating high school in 1967, she attended Northwestern University. She left after one year and went to work full-time as an operator at Illinois Bell. She got married and had a son. She transferred her credits to Loyola University-Chicago and earned a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts and Communications.
Career
Caldwell planned on a teaching career and taught at Chicago High School of the Performing Arts. She also worked a year for the Chicago Council on Fine Arts as an artist-in-residence. While in Chicago Caldwell performed in local theatrical productions at the Body Politic, Court Theater, and Eleventh Street Theater. She went to New York in 1978 to audition for Uta Hagen's school HB Studio. While waiting to audition she saw an ad for The Negro Ensemble Company. After her audition at Hagen's school, she took the subway to the NEC.
Caldwell was initially rebuffed by the person who interviewed her but she insisted on meeting with Ward. She used the three pieces she performed at her audition for Hagen. She was accepted by both Hagen and Ward. During her first season at NEC Caldwell performed in several plays. One of those plays, Home, by Samm Art Williams, took her to Broadway's Cort Theatre in 1980. The play was critically acclaimed and earned a Tony Award nomination for Charles Brown. After Home closed Caldwell worked in several regional theater productions including Boesman and Lena at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and A Raisin in the Sun at Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, New York.
In December 1984, while working in A Play of Giants, Caldwell was struck by a car while hailing a cab on Columbus Avenue in New York. She suffered a severe back injury and was unable to work for nearly two years. Her first audition after her recovery was for August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Her performance as Bertha Holly earned her a 1988 Tony Award. Soon after winning the Tony, she moved to southern California to work in television and film. She has been extremely busy, working in several cities in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa, and continues to work in theater. She returned to Broadway in 1997 as the lead in Neil Simon's short-lived Proposals. After Proposals closed Caldwell performed the role of Leah, Little Augie's sister, in New York City Center's "Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert" production of St. Louis Woman.
In 2006, she made her Goodman Theatre debut in Regina Taylor's The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove. In 2011, she took on the role of Lena Younger in the Ebony Repertory Theatre production of the Lorraine Hansberry classic A Raisin in the Sun. The play was directed by Phylicia Rashad. Caldwell, along with the entire cast, was nominated for the LA Stage Alliance 2011 Ovation Award for her work as Lena, for which she won the 2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Personal life
In her early twenties, Scott married John Caldwell and had a son, Ominara. She was divorced in the early 1980s and was married again (on her birthday) in 2004 to artist/photographer/director Dasal Banks. Banks suffered from cancer and died in May 2005. Caldwell completed her husband's final film, My Brothers and Me, a documentary created to raise awareness about prostate cancer among black men.
Caldwell gives lectures and appears on panels concerning African American actors. In 2007, she participated in tributes to August Wilson at Goodman Theatre in conjunction with Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, and at St. Louis Black Repertory Company. In June 2008, she participated in the NAACP Theatre Awards Festival Actors on Acting panel. In June 2009, Caldwell moderated a panel of actors, directors, and casting directors discussing African American Images in Hollywood. In February 2010, she directed a staged reading of Standing On My Sisters' Shoulders for the Los Angeles chapter of Actors Equity Association.
Filmography
Theatre
2017 Gem of the Ocean as Aunt Ester Tyler
2014 What I Learned In Paris as Eve Madison
2014 The Wife's Story as She
2011 A Raisin in the Sun as Lena Younger
2011 The Circle as Donna
2009 Reverse Transcription Staged Reading as Ottoline
2006 The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove as Sarah Breedlove / Madam C.J. Walker
2000–2005 Going to St. Ives (radio broadcast and recording) as May N'Kame
1998 St. Louis Woman as Leah
1997 Proposals as Clemma Diggins
1997 Macbeth as Lady Macbeth
1995 American Medea as Medea
1991 The Piano Lesson as Berniece
1990 From the Mississippi Delta as Miss Rosebud / Brother Pastor
1987–1988 Joe Turner's Come and Gone as Bertha Holly
1987 A Month of Sundays as Understudy Mrs. Baker
1986 Elegies for the Fallen Staged Reading
1984 A Play of Giants as Ambassador
1983 About Heaven & Earth as Black Woman, The Redeemer / Raimy, Nightline
Director
2009 My Brothers and Me Documentary
2010 Standing On My Sisters' Shoulders Staged Reading
Commercials
1989 The United Negro College Fund – Little Brother as Mother
1992 McDonald's – Grapevine as Calvin's Mother
Radio
1982 WBAI – Reena by Paule Marshall as The Narrator
Awards and nominations
Awards
2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Lead Performance and Ensemble Performance – A Raisin in the Sun
2006 BTAA Award for Best leading actress in a play – The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove
2005 Obie Award for Performance in a play – Going to St. Ives
1998 Helen Hayes Award for Supporting actress in a non-resident production – Proposals
1997 Drama-Logue Award for Performance in a play – Proposals
1990 Drama-Logue Award for Ensemble performance – From The Mississippi Delta
1988 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Nominations
2011 Ovation Award for Best Acting Ensemble in a Play – A Raisin in the Sun
2007 Gemini Award (Canadian television) for Best actress in a guest performance – Jozi-H
2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding actress in a play – Going to St. Ives
1998 FANY (FAns of NY Theatre) Award for Outstanding actress in a play – Proposals
