Hattie McDaniel, the first black person to win an Oscar, is reportedly the subject of a forthcoming biopic. Producers Aaron Magnani and Alysia Allen have obtained the rights to Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, a biography Jill Watts published in 2007, Variety reported earlier this week. McDaniel won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for her role as the house servant “Mammy” in “Gone With The Wind.” It wasn’t until 1964 that the next black actor, Sidney Poitier, would win an Academy Award. “Gone With The Wind” won eight Oscars, but all of its black actors ― including McDaniel ― were prohibited from attending the movie’s premiere in Georgia. She appeared on a radio show in the 1920s, making her one of the first black women to do so, and made her film debut in “The Golden West” in 1932.

Source: Huffington Post January 11, 2018 23:17 UTC