A solidly-built actress-singer with vulnerable eyes and a kewpie-doll voice, Loretta Devine was a professional actor for about 18 years before rising to prominence through the 1995 feature film "Waiting to Exhale". As Gloria, the divorcee and overprotective mother whose loneliness is filled by Gregory Hines, she delivered a touching comic performance.
The Houston-born performer began her career as a stage director in the early 1970s at the Black Arts Center. After earning an MFA at Brandeis University, Devine landed her first musical role in "Godsong" at the famed La MaMa Etc. company in NYC. Her Broadway debut was in the 1977 revival of "Hair", but she scored her first big success in 1981 as Lorell, one of the "Dreamgirls" in Michael Bennett's award-winning production. Her solo, "Ain't No Party", rocked the theater nightly and brought her acclaim. Bob Fosse cast her in his musical "Big Deal" (1986) and later that year, she earned praise for multiple roles in George C Wolfe's bitingly satirical "The Colored Museum.”
Despite the attention her musical career received, it was several years before film and TV roles found their way onto Devine's resume. Her first film roles were bits in "Little Nikita" and "Sticky Fingers" (both 1988). She also had another small role as a working woman on the assembly line in "Stanley and Iris" (1990) before graduating to a strong supporting role in "Livin' Large" (1991), playing the responsible sister of a young man who only wants to be a TV broadcaster. But the film was a modest comedy and did not get much attention. Ditto for her 1992 role in "Class Act", as the mother of Play, of the Kid 'n Play rap duo. Finally, in 1995, came "Waiting to Exhale." Her work in the film won Devine a 1996 NAACP Image Award as well as a strong supporting role to Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston in "The Preacher's Wife" (1996).
Devine began working on the small screen in 1987, when she spent a year on the NBC comedy "A Different World." When the show was revamped in its second season, Devine was one of the cast members—along with Marisa Tomei—dropped. In 1990, she was given her own short-lived series by CBS, "Sugar and Spice", in which she was a free-spirit joining with her conservative sister in raising their orphaned niece. Devine made her TV-movie debut in 1988 with "The Murder of Mary Phagan" (NBC), a miniseries on the Leo Frank case of Georgia. In 1991, she reprised her stage work in the ensemble show "The Colored Museum" for PBS. She has also made guest appearances on "Picket Fences" and “Reasonable Doubts.” Throughout the 1990’s, Devine maintained a steady presence on television in numerous guest starring and recurring roles: episodes of “Roc” (Fox, 1991-1994), “Picket Fences” (CBS, 1992-1996), “Touched By An Angel” (CBS, 1994-2003) and “Moesha” (UPN, 1995-2001) dot her resume. She then landed a regular role on the animated series, “The PJs” (WB, 1998-2001), voicing matriarch Muriel Stubbs to creator Eddie Murphy’s patriarchal Thurgood Stubbs. In 2000, she began her run on the acclaimed high school drama, “Boston Public” (Fox, 2000-2004), in which she played a special ed teacher who downs medication just to get through the day.
Meanwhile, Devine’s film career continued unabated. After appearing a couple low-budget flicks that never saw the light of day—“The Price of Kissing” (1997) and “Lover Girl” (1997)—she had a small role as Pigfoot Mary, girlfriend to the cousin (Chi McBride) of a released con (Laurence Fishburne) who vies for control of Harlem’s numbers racket. Next, she played a university rent-a-cop with attitude in the campus slasher flick, “Urban Legends” (1998), then appeared as a loving caregiver to an Alzheimer’s patient (Esther Rolle) in Maya Angelou’s heartwarming drama, “Down in the Delta” (1998). After turning up in the comedy hit that saw Mel Gibson get in touch with his feminine side, “What Women Want” (2000), Devine revived her tough-ass campus cop Reese in the sequel, “Urban Legends: Final Cut” (2000)—a limp and insipid teen thriller that should make Hollywood executives think twice in the future.
Devine returned to series television with a regular gig on the Lifetime drama, “Wildcard” (2003-2005), about a former blackjack dealer (Joely Fisher) who embarks on a new career as an insurance fraud investigator after the death of her sister. After playing an overbearing mom prone to quoting the Good Book to her nephew (Darius McCrary) in the feature “Kingdom Come” (2001), she played a social worker who helps separate a retarded man (Sean Penn) from his seven year-old daughter (Dakota Fanning) in the mawkish drama, “I Am Sam” (2001). Devine then gave one of the only amusing performances in the otherwise dreadful comedy, “King’s Ransom” (2005).