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Dallassite Featured in Showtime's The First Lady cont. from page 1
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Regina Taylor and Cheryl Smith during recent interview
couldn’t hold back sharing the news that Taylor had become the first Black woman to play Juliet Capulet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway.
Monday, April 17, English, now in her late 80s, will get a chance anew to brag on Taylor, a Southern Methodist University graduate, who will portray Marian Shields Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, in the new Showtime limited series, The First Lady.
“I am so proud of my niece,” Mrs. English said. “She always takes care of home and she is such a beautifull, multi-talented person.”
For her part, Taylor, reached in New York where she is working on several projects, said taking on the role of the former “First Mother” was sobering.
“It was humbling playing this woman because I remember when she stepped onto the world stage and walked into the White House,” Taylor said.
“(I said to myself,) ‘You know what Michelle, you brought your mama with you to keep things stable, to bring continuity, lineage, legacy and stability.’ You want that stability up in there!”
The First Lady chronicles Obama and former First Ladies Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt in Season One. Celebrated Hollywood veterans Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson play the first ladies, respectively.
“Viola Davis does a smash up job playing Michelle Obama and I am very happy to be playing Marian Robinson,” Taylor said.
The series offers viewers a peek at very distinguished women in very different times, how they became who they are and the people who shaped and supported them, Taylor said. The ensemble cast also includes Saniyya Sidney as Sasha Obama; Julian DeNiro, as a young Barack Obama; and Evan Parke as Michelle Obama’s longtime security agent, Allen Taylor. Lexi Underwood (Little Fires Everywhere, Will Vs. The Future) portrays Malia Obama, the former First Family’s eldest daughter. “I’m so honored to be in this series with so many actors who are doing what they love to do and they are excellent,” said Taylor, a graduate of Dallas’ L.G. Pinkston High School. Taylor grew up in West Dallas with her mother, an educator who later worked as a social worker, and she was very close to her first cousin, who she calls Aunt Vera. It was Taylor’s mother who introduced her daughter to the arts. Taylor said she often thinks of her mother, who is now deceased, and the influence she had on her life. “My strength and focus come from my mother,” she said. Her mother loved gardening and Taylor would often visit her mother’s garden because she enjoyed viewing “those plants that she (her mother) planted with her own hands; searching for my roots, my stability, my heartbeat, which began with hers.” She said, “I think Michelle (Obama) is always saying that source of strength for her was her parents.” There’s also that special cousin, Aunt Vera, whom Taylor said took a more prominent role in her life after her mother’s passing. A self-described “chocolate girl with pigtails,” Taylor also loved to write.
She thought of becoming a journalist and landed in the classroom of celebrated D/FW journalist Bob Ray Sanders, who at the time, worked as a television commentator, newspaper writer and frequent guest on Dallas area radio shows.
He also taught a class at Texas Christian University.
Sanders remembered a young Taylor, who grew up on Dallas’ West side, as “talented, intelligent, motivated and ready to work to do her thing.”
“She represented herself well,” he said in an interview this week with Texas Metro News. “That is who she was and I am honored to have been a little part of her life. I’m just proud of her.”
Instead of journalism, Taylor found her niche, however, in theater.
She and her mother visited museums and community centers, became familiar with Ann Williams of Dallas Black Dance Theatre and she recalled cultivating many of her talents at the Jr. Black Academy of Arts and Letters with founder Curtis King.
Barbara Steele, former chair of the Academy’s board, remembers when Taylor first came through. The budding actress was talented and humble, Steele said.
“I always knew Regina was going to be a star,” said Steele, who is also a close friend of “Aunt Vera.” “What strikes me is how unpretentious she has always been. She has a heart of gold and she is so generous with her time and resources.”
Taylor will return to Dallas soon when the new Fine Arts Department at Pinkston High School will be named in her honor.
Taylor said her first film was the made-for-TV movie Crisis at Central High, starring Joanne Woodward, in which she portrayed Minniejean Brown, one of the first Black students to integrate the Arkansas school system.
According to her bio, Taylor next garnered praise for her role as Mrs. Carter, a drug-addicted mother in 1989's Lean on Me, alongside Morgan Freeman.
Other film roles include Spike Lee’s Clockers, Saturday Church and Losing Isaiah.
More recently, Taylor was seen in the mind-bending Lovecraft Country (Jordan Peele, J. J. Abrams, Mischa Greene); The Wonder Years (Saladin K. Patterson, Lee Daniels, Marc Valez, Fred Savage); Red Line (Ava DuVernay); All Day and a Night (Joe Robert Cole, Jeffrey Wright, Ashton Sanders); Blue Bloods (Tom Selleck); Black List; and Dig.
The winner of numerous honors, including two NAACP Image Awards and a Golden Globe for the TV series I'll Fly Away (with Sam Waterston), Taylor said she is honored and humbled by the recognition and opportunities coming her way.
Taylor, like Obama, has had the undergirding and support from women, much like Marian Robinson, and both women have reached unimaginable heights while also remaining true to their roots.
In March DISD Board Trustees voted on several name changes, including:
Sarah Zumwalt Middle School
Robert L. Thornton Elementary School
William Hawley Atwell Law Academy
Bryan Adams High School
n/a
n/a
H. S. Thompson Elementary School Cafeteria
Library at Thornton Elementary School
Fine Arts Department at Pinkston High School
L. G. Pinkston ROTC Wing Marvin E. Robinson School of Business and Management at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview
Dr. Frederick Douglass Todd Sr. Middle School
Otto M. Fridia Elementary School
Judge Louis A. Bedford, Jr. Law Academy
Bryan Adams High School Leadership Academy
iLearn Virtual Academy at Dallas ISD
Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern
Jacqueline Mixon Cafetorium
Emma Rodgers Library at Otto M. Fridia Elementary School
Regina Taylor Fine Arts Department at L. G. Pinkston High School
LTC. Retired Raymond Castillo ROTC Wind
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Mayor Eric Johnson announces creation of Mayor's Distinguished Service Award
DALLAS — Mayor Eric Johnson on Thursday announced that he is officially creating the “Mayor’s Distinguished Service Award.”
The award will honor the notable service and significant contributions of Dallas residents to the City of Dallas. During the inaugural year, Mayor Johnson — the 60th Mayor of Dallas — will name 60 awardees.
The new award will be considered the highest honor — other than the Key to the City — that can be bestowed on civilians by the mayor, who is the “official head of city government” under the Dallas City Charter.
“Dallas is a dynamic city that serves as the economic and cultural engine of the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country. But our greatest asset is our people,” Mayor Johnson said. “Through the Mayor’s Distinguished Service Award, we can properly honor those individuals who have strengthened our city in truly extraordinary ways.”
To be considered for the award, nominees must: • Currently live in the City of Dallas; • Have a distinguished record of service and/or meritorious achievement over multiple years in the City of Dallas; • Demonstrate a standard of excellence; and • Display good moral character.
Nominations are now open and can be submitted through this form. To be considered for an award, nominees must be current City of Dallas residents. City employees are ineligible to receive the award.
The nominations are due by 6 p.m., April 29, 2022.
To help him select awardees, Mayor Johnson has assembled a committee of distinguished community, civic, and business leaders, who will review nominations. • Craig Holcomb (co-chair) - Civic leader and former Dallas City Councilmember • Sarah Jackson (co-chair) - President,
The Texas Lyceum and Vice President of
Strategy and Public Affairs, Dallas Citizens Council • Jason Villalba (co-chair) - CEO and
Chairman, Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, and former Texas State Representative. • Agustin Arteaga - The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of
Art • Willie Mae Coleman - South Dallas neighborhood leader • Betty Culbreath - Former Director,
Dallas County Health and Human Services and incoming Chair, Dallas Housing Authority • Florencia Fortner - President & CEO,
The Concilio • Mita Havlick - Executive Director, Dallas Education Foundation • Chris Heinbaugh - Vice President of Ex-
ternal Affairs, AT&T Performing Arts Center • Lee Jackson - former Chancellor of the
University of North Texas System and former Dallas County Judge • Lelious Johnson - Pastor, St. Paul Baptist Church • Ben Leal - President, The Addy Foundation • Andrew Paley - Senior Rabbi, Temple
Shalom • Mary Poss - Realtor and former Acting
Mayor and Dallas Mayor Pro Tem • Barbara Steele - Dallas civic and political leader "The esteemed members of this inaugural selection committee have my sincerest gratitude," Mayor Johnson said. "I trust their judgment, I know that they will represent viewpoints from all over this diverse and vibrant city, and I am thrilled to work with them to honor some of our most deserving residents." "This prestigious award provides us with the opportunity to recognize those residents of Dallas who have made a deep and lasting impact on our community and in some cases, beyond," said Holcomb. "I want to thank Mayor Johnson for inviting me to help spearhead this process, and I am excited to help honor some genuinely amazing people in our city." "Dallas is a great city with some outstanding leaders," said Jackson. "The Mayor's Distinguished Service Award is a long overdue way for the City of Dallas to officially recognize the work our many civic leaders do every day to make Dallas the incredible place that it is." "Like Mayor Johnson, I grew up in Dallas, and I love this city and its people," Villalba said. "I am grateful to the mayor for this opportunity to help lift up our city's best and brightest. I know there are many people in our city who deserve to be honored in this way, and I look forward to working with this committee to help select the inaugural group of individuals to receive this truly special award.”
Previously, the Office of the Mayor had only four ways to honor civilians in Dallas: through formal letters, special recognitions, proclamations, and Keys to the City.
Mayor Johnson has presented the Key to the City on only four occasions: to survivors of the Holocaust during the opening of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum; to His Majesty King Oyo of the Tooro Kingdom during an official visit; to the South Oak Cliff community, represented by head football Coach Jason Todd, after the high school team won the state championship; and to recent NBA Hall of Fame inductee and Lincoln High School graduate Chris Bosh during a special ceremony last month.
