Alex Haley's Queen
Encyclopedia
Alex Haley's Queen is a miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 adaptation of the 1993 Alex Haley
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...

/David Stevens novel Queen: The Story of an American Family
Queen: The Story of an American Family
Queen: The Story of an American Family is a 1993 partly factual historical novel by Alex Haley and David Stevens. It brought back to the consciousness of many White Americans the plight of the children of the plantation: the offspring of black slave women and their white masters, who were legally...

, directed by John Erman
John Erman
John Erman is an American television and film director, actor and producer.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Erman spent the early years of his career, after a few small roles in films such as The Cosmic Man , directing episodes of such primetime series as Peyton Place, The Fugitive, The Outer Limits,...

 and starring Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

 in the title role. The film tells the life story of a young slave girl named Queen, and illustrates the problems faced by bi-racial slaves in America. Throughout her life Queen struggles to fit into the two cultures of her heritage, and is at times shunned by both.

The story is based on the life of Haley's paternal grandmother Queen.

Plot

The series begins with the friendly relationship between James Jackson, Jr. (Tim Daly), the plantation owner's only son, and his slave, Easter (Jasmine Guy
Jasmine Guy
Jasmine Guy is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World.-Biography:...

), daughter of an African house slave, Captain Jack, and his true love, Annie, a Cherokee Native. It is revealed that Easter and James grew up together, and gradually, their feelings for each other develop into romance.

Just minutes after the death of his father, James Jackson, Sr. (Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

), James retreats to the comfort of the weaving house where Easter lives. James and Easter make love, and it is only when they are alone months later, that Easter reveals she is carrying his child. In the meantime, James is being pushed by his widowed mother, Sally Jackson (Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...

) to marry the respectable Elizabeth Perkins (Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...

).

On April 8, 1841, Easter gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Excited about his new granddaughter, Captain Jack announces to James' family during dinner that a slave child has just been born. In his announcement, he assures James that "Easter's doing just fine." This worries Lizzie, James' soon-to-be fiancee. Excusing herself from the table when she realizes the baby Jack is speaking of was indeed fathered by James, Lizzie vows to never marry him. Her mother convinces her otherwise. In the meantime, James is seen entering the birth in his date book; while he lists Easter as the child's mother, he leaves a line under 'father', showing the child, whom he names Queen (Captain Jack calls her 'Princess'), does not have one. After all, he could not put his own name down, as it would've disgraced the family.

James proposes to Lizzie the next evening, and the two are married at the home sometime later. While Easter serves the white ladies, Queen as a toddler is shown being carried around by a maid. When Sally and Lizzie's mother watch her for a moment, a wedding guest, believing she is a white child, wants to hold her, and Easter runs to get her when she notices. Lizzie's mother informs the guest whose baby she was, and he is shocked to know she was black, commenting, "She's as white as cotton."

During his engagement to Lizzie, James continues to visit Easter's cabin. While he is legally Lizzie's husband, James is still in love with Easter. James later convinces Easter to let Queen live in the Big House, where she can be trained as a Ladies' Maid. Easter and Lizzie are both opposed to the plan, but James' word is final, and five-year-old Queen (Raven-Symoné
Raven-Symoné
Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman , known professionally as Raven-Symoné , or simply Raven, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, comedian, dancer, television producer and model. Symoné launched her successful career in 1989 after appearing in The Cosby Show as Olivia...

) is taken to live with her father. While living at the Big House, Queen is tormented and teased by the slave children because she looks white. The children tell her that she is just like them, and does not have a father. James, seeing his daughter in trouble, chases the other children off, asking her why they are teasing her, Queen confesses that she knows how to read, James hands Queen over to Captain Jack. He goes to Easter's cabin, looking for the books Capt Jack had taught Queen to read from when James asks Easter what the books are she says nothing, a couple days later he comes back and leaves children's books there for his daughter to read. Although it is illegal for slaves to be educated, James gives her books.

Meanwhile, Lizzie learns that she is pregnant. She and James welcome a daughter, Jane, whom Queen is ordered to care for and serve. Although she is Jane's half-sister, no one dares think of Queen as part of the family because she is a black woman's child.

The film fasts forward to 1860; Queen (Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

) and Jane are two young ladies growing up in the South. There is talk of a civil war breaking out among the North and South because of the slave trade. While no one wants war, James tells Easter, that if war does come, he will fight in the Confederate Army.

Later in the year, the Union Army invades, and James leaves for battle. As he rides away, Easter, Queen, Jack, Lizzie, Sally and Jane, stand watch. It is at this moment that Easter reveals to Queen who her father really is by saying, "Pray for him Queen. He your Pappy."

While James is gone, Queen serves the ladies of the house, Lizzie and the now elderly Sally Jackson, as does Queen's mother, Easter. During a diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...

 epidemic, both Easter and Jane come down with the disease. Lizzie sends for the family doctor, but he tells her there is nothing to be done about Jane's deadly condition. Jane dies, and soon Easter becomes ill. Just as James returns from the battlefield, Easter dies with Queen at her side.

Regarding the plantation as her rightful home, Queen vows to stay with "her people". However, though Sally Jackson has been kind to her granddaughter over the years, she is also pragmatic in the aftermath of the war and Emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 and makes it clear that Queen can expect no help or support from them. After a mishap and run-in with Mr. Henderson (James' foreman) and his friends, Queen hides until morning then returns home, tired and hungry. When questioned by Lizzie as to where she's been, Queen accuses her mistress of treating "an old dog better" than her. Queen finally tells Lizzie that James is her father. When James returns home from searching for Queen, he finds that Queen is leaving. All that he can say to her was "there is God in everybody."

Now on her own, Queen finds it hard to find a place in society. Because she is very light-skinned, Queen does her best to 'pass' as a white woman; sometimes it works, sometimes she is recognized as black. Along the way, she befriends Alice (Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...

), a young woman in the same position in . Teaching Queen how to not give herself away with "slave talk", Alice takes her new friend under her wing. While at a local dance hall (for white folk), Queen meets Digby (Victor Garber
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...

), a seemingly religious, ex-Confederate soldier who treats African-Americans as if they were animals. Digby falls in love with Queen and soon, the two become engaged to marry. When Queen tells Alice of the events leading up to Digby's proposal, Alice is horrified and tells Queen that she cannot marry him, but Queen ignores her warnings.

After Digby makes sexual advances towards her in his apartment, Queen becomes frightened, and making a nearly deadly mistake, confesses to Digby that she is the daughter of a slave woman and Colonel Jackson. As a result, Queen is beaten, raped, and kicked out onto the street. Fearing that she will be found out as well, Alice turns Queen away, leaving her to fend for herself. Desperate and starving, Queen seeks help from the Christian black community of Huntsville, which takes her in. A job is arranged for her with two white women, Miss Mandy and Miss Giffery, who hire her as a housemaid.

Seemingly well-settled, Queen attends a local African church, where she meets an African-American woman who she befriends. After settling into her job, Queen meets a man named Davis. The two fall in love, and Queen finds herself pregnant with his child. Promising her that they will run to freedom, Queen leaves for the train station, but Davis never shows. Obviously abandoned, Queen is taken under the wing of Doris, a woman from the church where she and Davis met. At first, Queen opts to abort her pregnancy. At the last minute, she changes her mind and returns to Mandy and Giffery's house.

Calling Queen a sinner, Miss Mandy, along with Giffery's help, plans to steal her child as soon as it is born and raise him as their own. When Queen gives birth to a boy, whom she vows to name for his father, Miss Giffery declares that Davis is the name of an adulterer and baptizes the child as Abner. Feeling like an outcast, Queen asks for help from the preacher at her church. He says that there is nothing she can do to stop the women from stealing her son.

Convinced it's the only way out, Queen takes Abner and runs for her life, planning to move north and open a flower shop. She gets a job with an aristocratic woman, Mrs. Benson, nearby and eventually comes across Davis leading a Black strike. He is captured and brought before a judge, but manages to convince the man to let him and his followers go. He and Queen reconcile shortly thereafter. However, Mrs. Benson tricks her into leading the KKK, of which Mr. Benson is a member, to Davis' hideout in the woods. They approach his house and he comes out armed with a shotgun, but is forced to lower his weapon when he sees that they have Abner. He is then lynched and Queen finds his charred body the next day, with her child in a cage beside him. She sets out on the road again.

She soon meets Alec Haley, a widowed African-American farmer (who also runs the ferry), raising his young son, Henry. At first, Queen finds a job, again as a housemaid, with a kind, old man, Mr. Cherry. In the process, Queen and Alec fall in love and eventually marry. While each has a son from a previous relationship (Queen has Abner and Alec has Henry), the two have a third son together, named Simon. He will later become the father of writer Alex Haley, the famed author of "Roots" and of Queen's life story.

As their boys grow up, Abner wants to leave home to find his own place in the world and Simon wants to attend college. The family gives Simon fifty dollars so he can go to school, but that is all the money they have. Alec tells Abner he can go too, but Queen refuses to let her firstborn depart, telling him that Alec Haley is not his real father. During this time, Queen seems to lose her sense of reality. While shoving pieces of wood/kiln into the stove, her skirt catches fire, and she runs out into the wilderness. It is only the next morning that she is found by a neighbor and his son. Queen is admitted to a mental institution, where she encounters Mr. Cherry, the man she'd worked for years ago. Queen asks Mr. Cherry to loan her fifty dollars so that Abner can go out on his own. He lends her the money, and the Haley boys leave home. The miniseries ends with Queen and Alec sitting on their front porch as Queen tells her story of growing up as a slave owner's daughter.

Cast

  • Halle Berry
    Halle Berry
    Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

     as Queen
  • Christopher Allport
    Christopher Allport
    Christopher Allport was an American actor.-Biography:Allport was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His acting life began at the age of nine in New Canaan, Connecticut at the Children's Theatre. While at Northwestern University, he worked with Paul Sills and Story Theatre...

     as Union Officer
  • Ann-Margret
    Ann-Margret
    Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...

     as Sally Jackson
  • Dan Biggers
    Dan Biggers
    Dan Biggers is an American actor best known for his role as Frank "Doc" Robb on the television series In the Heat of the Night. He was born in Rome, Georgia....

     as George
  • Leo Burmester
    Leo Burmester
    Leo Burmester was an American actor. Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in Passion Fish and Lone Star , and also for directors such as John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ...

     as Henderson
  • Patricia Clarkson
    Patricia Clarkson
    Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...

     as Lizzie
  • Frances Conroy
    Frances Conroy
    Frances Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth, the matriarch of the Fisher family, on Six Feet Under, which earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.-Early life:...

     as Mrs. Benson
  • Tim Daly as Col. James Jackson Jr.
  • Ossie Davis
    Ossie Davis
    Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...

     as Parson Dick
  • Victor Garber
    Victor Garber
    Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...

     as Digby
  • Danny Glover
    Danny Glover
    Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...

     as Alec Haley
  • Ed Grady as Doctor
  • John Griesemer as Doctor
  • George Grizzard
    George Grizzard
    George Cooper Grizzard, Jr. was an American actor of film and stage. He appeared in more than 40 films, dozens of television programs and a number of Broadway plays.-Life and career:...

     as Mr. Cherry
  • Tim Guinee
    Tim Guinee
    Timothy S. "Tim" Guinee is an American stage, television, and feature film actor.-Life and career:Guinee, who has two brothers and two sisters, was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Illinois and Texas....

     as Wesley
  • Jasmine Guy
    Jasmine Guy
    Jasmine Guy is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World.-Biography:...

     as Easter
  • Linda Hart
    Linda Hart
    Linda Hart is an American singer, musician, and actress, mainly appearing in musical theatre.- Biography :As a child, Hart sang in her church choir; at age seven, she joined her father and the rest of the family in The Harts, a weekly gospel television series. Hart attended Los Angeles City...

     as Mrs. Henderson
  • Dennis Haysbert
    Dennis Haysbert
    Dennis Dexter Haysbert is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, President David Palmer on the American television series 24, and Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on the drama series The Unit, as well as his work...

     as Davis
|
  • Tommy Hollis
    Tommy Hollis
    Tommy Hollis was an American actor. A native of Jacksonville, Texas, he starred as Earl Little in the Spike Lee-directed movie Malcolm X . He died in New York City of a heart attack.-External links:...

     as Fred
  • Richard Jenkins
    Richard Jenkins
    Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...

     as Mr. Benson
  • Christine Jones
    Christine Jones (actress)
    Christine Jones is an American actress.Jones is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Janice Frame on the NBC soap opera Another World from 1978–1980 and again in 1989, but had also appeared as Amy Gifford on the series in 1977...

     as Sarah Jackson
  • Jane Krakowski
    Jane Krakowski
    Jane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...

     as Jane
  • Patrick Malone as Simon
  • Peter Maloney as Perkins
  • Lonette McKee
    Lonette McKee
    Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...

     as Alice
  • Kenn Michael as Henry at 11 (as Kenny Blank)
  • Daryl Mitchell
    Daryl Mitchell
    Daryl "Chill" Mitchell is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Dexter Walker on The John Larroquette Show, Leo Michaels on Veronica's Closet, and Eli Goggins on Ed....

     as Abner (as Daryl 'Chill' Mitchell)
  • Charlotte Moore as Mrs. Perkins
  • Martin Sheen
    Martin Sheen
    Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

     as James Jackson Sr.
  • Madge Sinclair
    Madge Sinclair
    Madge Dorita Sinclair was a Jamaican American character actress.-Early years:Sinclair was born Madge Dorita Walters in Kingston, Jamaica, to Herbert and Jemima Walters. She was a teacher in Jamaica until 1968 when she left for New York to pursue her career in acting.-Career:In 1978, she starred in...

     as Dora
  • Jussie Smollett
    Jussie Smollett
    Jussie Smollett is an American actor and photographer, and is the older brother of actress Jurnee Smollett.He was born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He is known primarily for his work on On Our Own with his brothers Jojo, Jake, and Jocqui and his sisters Jazz and Jurnee Smollett...

     as Simon (age 11)
  • Lorraine Toussaint
    Lorraine Toussaint
    Lorraine Toussaint is an actress best known for starring alongside Annie Potts in Any Day Now.Toussaint graduated from Manhattan's School of Performing Arts in 1978, before going on to graduate from Juilliard School...

     as Joyce
  • Eric Ware as Micah
  • Paul Winfield
    Paul Winfield
    Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....

     as Cap'n Jack
  • Samuel E. Wright
    Samuel E. Wright
    Samuel E. Wright is an American film and theater actor and singer who is best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid, for which he provided the main vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also voiced Kron in Disney's CGI film...

     as Alfred
  • Raven-Symoné
    Raven-Symoné
    Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman , known professionally as Raven-Symoné , or simply Raven, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, comedian, dancer, television producer and model. Symoné launched her successful career in 1989 after appearing in The Cosby Show as Olivia...

     as Queen (age 5) (uncredited)

  • Broadcast history

    Queen originally aired on CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

     in 1993 as three episodes on the nights of February 14, 16, and 18.

    Ratings and viewers

    The miniseries averaged a 23.9 rating and 37% share for the three parts.
    Episode Ranking Number of
    Households
    Number of
    Viewers
    Rating Share Date Network
    Queen Part I #3 24.6 million N/A 24.7% 35% CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

    Queen Part II #1 22.4 million 35.0 million 24.1% 37% CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

    Queen Part III #3 21.3 million 33.0 million 22.8% N/A CBS
    CBS
    CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...


    Part I aired a week prior to parts II and III in the ratings.

    See also

    • Roots (TV miniseries)
      Roots (TV miniseries)
      Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...

    • Roots: The Next Generations
      Roots: The Next Generations
      Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte...

    The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
     
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