LPTW PRESENTS
Billie Allen Award
The legacy of Billie Allen (Wilhelmina Louise Allen) is rich indeed. Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1925, she became interested in the performing arts at Hampton University and moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study acting with Lee Strasbourg and study ballet. It was a time when Black actors were not seen as regulars on television in the 1950s but, Billie broke the barrier. She was a catalyst in integrating show business.
In her biography it was noted, in the late 1940s she was featured in the film, Souls of Sin with Jimmy Wright and William Greaves. In the early 1950s she was cast in Take A Giant Step on Broadway with Lou Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge and Lincoln Kilpatrick. She broke the barrier in television by becoming a frequent performer in the Phil Silver’s Show, and in the soap opera The Edge of Night. She was in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro and in the movie, Black Like Me,in the revival of the off-Broadway production of Mamba’s Daughters with one of her mentors, Ethel Waters andon stage in James Baldwins Blues for Mister Charlie. Some of the movies and television that followed were Route 66, Car 54, Where Are You, The Wiz, Winter Kills, The Vernon Johns Story, Eddie Murphy Raw, and Law and Order. Billie added directing to her long list of accomplishments with the off-Broadway play, Home, featuring Samuel L. Jackson, Saint Lucy’s Eyes starring Ruby Dee, and the revival of Funnyhouse of a Negro. She directed several plays at the New York State Theatre Institute including Louis St. Louis’ Sugar Hill and Sheldon Harnick’s The Dragon as well as mentoring interns.
Billie loved bringing people together. She was a founding member of The League of Professional Theatre Women and served as a co-President. She founded Harlem’s Frank Silvera Writers’Workshop in Harlem with Morgan Freeman, Garland Lee Thompson and Clayton Riley. She served as a member of the nominating committee for the Tony Awards. She was married to the composer Luther Henderson and together they received the 2002 Audelco “VIV” Pioneer Awards.
