Irma P. Hall, Big Mama in 'Soul Food' and a Cannes Jury Prize Winner for 'The Ladykillers,' Dies in Dallas at 91
Irma P. Hall, the American actor beloved as Big Mama, the matriarch in Soul Food, died on November 10 in Dallas, Texas. She was 91. Her family announced her death in a statement on November 11, giving no cause, and said she died surrounded by loved ones.
Born Irma Dolores Player on June 3, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas, Hall was raised in Chicago and later returned to Texas for college. She taught English and foreign languages in Dallas public schools for more than two decades. In 1973, actor and director Raymond St. Jacques heard her recite poetry in Dallas and cast her in his film Book of Numbers. She continued teaching while taking acting roles, then made performance her full-time work in the 1980s. She also helped establish the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre.
She was 60 when A Family Thing brought her a major film role. In 1997 she played Josephine "Big Mama" Joseph, the steadying force of the Joseph family in Soul Food, a role that earned her the NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress and that she later reprised in the television series based on the film. In 2004 she played Marva Munson, a Bible-reading landlady opposite Tom Hanks in the Coen brothers' comedy The Ladykillers, a performance that won her the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Her other films include Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Patch Adams, Collateral and Meet the Browns.
Hall was a longtime Dallas resident and a longtime member of the city's Inspiring Body of Christ Church. She is survived by her daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, who said in the family's announcement: "She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world." The family said memorial arrangements would be announced later.
Tom Hanks paid tribute to his former co-star on social media on November 13, calling her "a sheer joy" and writing, "May her memory be eternal."
(Source: Statement from Irma P. Hall's family)
Source: Statement from Irma P. Hall's family
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：法国戛纳影节宫与门前台阶。Hall 凭《快闪杀手》在戛纳获评审团奖；其本人无开放授权照片，本图为影展会场实景、非本人照（原图经裁切）。Jorge Láscar 摄，CC BY，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, and its front steps. Hall won the Jury Prize at Cannes for The Ladykillers; no openly licensed portrait of her exists, so this is the festival venue, not a portrait of her (cropped from the original). Photo by Jorge Láscar, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons.
