‘A TEACHER TO THE WORLD’

Actress Who Became Famous at 60 Dies at 91

Irma P. Hall, who had a decades-long career as a schoolteacher before becoming a Hollywood hit, has died.

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Irma. P. Hall, known for her matriarchal roles, has died at 91 in Dallas, Texas, her family announced on Wednesday. Hall was renowned for her role as Big Mama in the 1997 film Soul Food, which won her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She also received a Cannes Film Festival Prize for her performance as Marva Munson in the Coen brothers’ 2004 film, The Lady Killers. After more than twenty years as a teacher in Dallas public schools, Hall landed her first major film role at age 60, playing Aunt T. in A Family Thing, opposite James Earl Jones and Robert Duvall. Raymond St. Jacques noticed her reciting poetry in Dallas and cast her in the 1973 film A Book of Numbers. She would eventually make acting a full-time career in 1980 and went on to establish the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre, where she developed young artists. She was a longtime member of the Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas, where she read to children and was active in theater ministry. “She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” her daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, wrote in a statement.