Carol Sutton, famed actress and Native Orleanian, falls victim to COVID-19
21st December 2020 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
Local actor Carol Sutton, whose resume boasted over 100 roles in film, stage and television, passed away at Touro Infirmary on December 11 from COVID-19 complications at the age of 76.
Sutton began acting in the late 1960s when she joined The Dashiki Project Theatre, one of the few African-American theatrical troupes in the Deep South at the time. She told Gambit Weekly in 2012 that the group came to perform at her church and she was immediately fascinated by it. When the artistic director, Ted Gilliam, noticed Sutton intently watching every rehearsal, he approached her about acting.
“For the second production he (Gilliam), said ‘You think you can do this?’ I said ‘I know I can!’” Sutton told the publication after being honored with its Big Easy Theater Lifetime Achievement award. “But I got in that production and I cried every night because I felt I was so inadequate compared to them…That’s how I got started, but I loved it and I’ve been doing it ever since.” Sutton’s film resume was an eclectic one. She had speaking roles in films as varied as Steel Magnolias, The Big Easy, 21 Jump Street, Ray, Monster’s Ball, Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, The Help, This Is The End, Poms, Eve’s Bayou and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. On the small screen, she guest starred in the acclaimed HBO series Treme, True Detective and Lovecraft Country. She also had speaking roles in TV movies like A Gathering of Old Men, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (her first role on any screen), and the 2016 update of Roots.
In the Gambit Weekly interview, Sutton expressed pride in the diversity of roles she played on screen. She portrayed a maid in The Help and a principal in 21 Jump Street, alongside a nurse in Steel Magnolias, a judge in The Big Easy, and a cashier in This Is The End.
Sutton never stopped working on the stage even as she advanced into her 70’s. In 2019, she played the role of Lena Younger in a production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Ashe Power House Theater. In 2015, she played the role of the Stage Manager in a Le Petit Theatre production of Our Town. The Stage Manager part had traditionally been one played by white men.
“Sutton supplants the typically stiff Yankee reserve with neighborly, distinctly Southern warmth,” wrote a 2015 Times-Picayune review of Our Town. “Never sentimental, she captures the omnipresent power while remaining loving and genuinely funny. It is a smartly rich performance.”
In a 2019 video interview with University of New Orleans documentary production professor Laszlo Fulop, Sutton reflected on her career.
“I never expected this to happen to me. So everything that’s happened to me, I feel it’s a blessing from the very first movie I ever got,” Sutton said.
Lance E. Nichols, a former regular on Treme who worked with Sutton on many occasions, expressed his admiration for Sutton and sorrow for her loss.
“Carol Sutton was a beacon of light to all that knew her. Talented beyond measure but even more…an amazing human being who was kind, thoughtful and extremely generous. Her shoes will not be replaced,” Nichols said.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also praised Sutton in a Twitter statement. “Carol Sutton was practically the queen of New Orleans theater, having graced stages across the city for decades. The world may recognize her from her performances in movies and on TV…but we will always remember her commanding stage presence, her richly portrayed characters, and the warm heart she shared with fellow cast and crew in productions such as 4000 Miles and A Raisin in the Sun,” Cantrell said.
Ava DuVernay, celebrated director and the creator of the OWN series Queen Sugar, also tweeted a remembrance of Sutton, who appeared in a guest role on the show.
“It was our honor to welcome this veteran actress of stage and screen to our show as Aunt Martha in episode 409, ‘Stare at the Same Fires,’” wrote DuVernay.
Sutton is survived by two children and five grandchildren.
This article originally published in the December 21, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
