Beloved and In the Heat of the Night. She appeared in Roots: The Next Generations as Cynthia Murray Palmer, the grandmother of Alex Haley. She made numerous guest television appearances, including roles on Beauty and the Beast, The Bill Cosby Show, 227, Sanford and Son, Benson, Designing Women, The Facts of Life, The Practice, Murder, She Wrote, The Big Valley and ER (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.) She was the winner of two Emmy Awards, one in 1988 for her appearance on the series Frank's Place and another in 2000 for her appearance on The Practice. Recognition and awards Richards was nominated for a Tony Award for her 1965 performance in James Baldwin's The Amen Corner. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mrs. Mary Prentice, Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Death and legacy Richards died from emphysema in her hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi at the age of 80, just four days after winning an Emmy award. In the last year of her life, Richards was the subject of a documentary created by actress Lisa Gay Hamilton. The documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks was created from over 70 hours of their conversations. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival. Filmography References Further reading Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War (2011) by Dayo Gore External links 1920 births 2000 deaths Actresses from Mississippi African-American actresses American film actresses 20th-century American poets American stage actresses American television actresses Deaths from emphysema Primetime Emmy Award winners People from Vicksburg, Mississippi Dillard University alumni 20th-century American actresses American women poets American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Baptists from Mississippi 20th-century Baptists 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers