Nell Carter
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Nell Carter

Nell Carter (born Nell Ruth Hardy; September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American actress and singer.

Carter began her career in 1970, singing in the theater, and later began work on television. She was best known for her role as Nell Harper on the sitcom Gimme a Break!, which aired from 1981 to 1987. Carter received two Emmy and two Golden Globe award nominations for her work on the series. Prior to Gimme a Break!, Carter won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in 1978 for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin' as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television in 1982.

Nell Ruth Hardy was born on September 13, 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children born to Edna Mae and Horace Hardy. She was born into a Catholic family and raised Presbyterian. Carter later self-identified as Pentecostal and as Jewish.

At the age of two, Hardy witnessed her father's electrocution when he stepped on a live power line.

As a child, she began singing on a local gospel radio show and was also a member of the church choir. At age 15, she began performing at area coffee houses, and later joined the Renaissance Ensemble that played at coffee houses and gay bars.

On July 5, 1965 at the age of 16, Hardy was raped at gunpoint by a man whom she knew. She became pregnant as a result of the rape and gave birth to daughter Tracey the next year. Finding raising a baby alone too difficult, she sent her child to live with her older sister Willie. She later claimed that Tracey was the product of a brief marriage, but she revealed the truth in a 1994 interview.

At age 19, Hardy changed her surname to Carter and left Birmingham, Alabama, moving to New York City with the Renaissance Ensemble, where she sang in coffee shops, nightclubs and bathhouses before landing her first Broadway role in 1971.

Carter made her Broadway debut in the 1971 rock opera Soon, which closed after three performances. She was the music director for the 1974 Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of What Time of Night It Is.[citation needed] Carter appeared with Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn Is Green, but the show closed before reaching Broadway.

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