Aleta Mitchell, who portrayed Dussie Mae in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Broadway and appeared in films for Milos Forman, Wes Craven, Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, has died. She was 74.
Mitchell died April 14 in hospice care in Branford, Connecticut, her family announced.
In the Craven-directed Haitian voodoo horror movie The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Mitchell’s Celestine Durand shows up in a dream sequence as a corpse in a white bridal gown; when she opens her mouth, a huge snake emerges to bite Bill Pullman’s character in the face.
Later, the actress appeared in Forman’s Valmont (1989), in Lee’s Malcolm X (1992) and in Eastwood’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997).
Born in Chicago on Feb. 12, 1952, Mitchell grew up in Hyde Park on the South Side. She appeared in touring stage productions throughout the Midwest while attending high school, then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Acting, respectively, from the University of Iowa in 1981 and the Yale School of Drama.
In 1984, she began her professional acting career with her turn as Dussie in the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which started out at the Yale Repertory Theater and starred Theresa Merritt and Charles S. Dutton.
She also appeared off-Broadway in Distracted, Marvin’s Room, Approaching Zanzibar and Ohio State Murders; in the films No Mercy (1986) and O.K. Garage (1998); and on television on The Cosby Show, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Equalizer and The Jury.
Survivors include her husband of 41 years, Thomas; her son, Andrew; and her mother, Geraldine. A celebration of life will be held this summer.
Donations in her memory can be made to the Aleta Mitchell Advancement Fund at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City IA 52244-4550.
Her family noted that she was “a Shakespearean actor to the core” and that “her epitaph comes from the Bard: ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’”
