Vonetta McGee

Vonetta McGee
McGee in 1975.
Born	Vonetta Lawrence McGee[1] (1945-01-14)January 14, 1945 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	July 9, 2010(2010-07-09) (aged 65) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Cardiac arrest
Nationality	American
Education	San Francisco Polytechnic High School San Francisco State University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1968–2007
Spouse(s)	Carl Lumbly (m. 1987–2010)
Partner(s)	Max Julien (1974–77)
Children	1

Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was an American actress.^[2] She is best known for her roles during the 1970s, which included blaxploitation films such as Hammer, Melinda, Blacula, Shaft in Africa, Detroit 9000 and 1974's Thomasine & Bushrod alongside her then-boyfriend Max Julien. She was a regular on the 1987 Universal Television situation comedy Bustin' Loose, starring as Mimi Shaw for its first and only season (1987–88).

Early life

Born in San Francisco, California, to Lawrence McGee and Alma McGee (née Scott),^[3] McGee graduated from San Francisco Polytechnic High School in 1962. She enrolled at San Francisco State University and became involved in acting groups on campus.

Career

McGee landed her first role in 1968, when she performed alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski in Sergio Corbucci's Spaghetti Western The Great Silence, and made her first released film appearance that same year as the eponymous character in the Italian comedy Faustina, which was released before the former film.^[1] She later became well known for her parts in the 1972 Blaxploitation films Melinda and Hammer. In the action thriller Shaft in Africa (1973), McGee took the role of Aleme, the daughter of an emir, who teaches John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) Ethiopian geography. In 1974, McGee appeared as Thomasine, alongside Max Julien as Bushrod, in the western action film Thomasine & Bushrod, which was intended as a counterpart to the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. The next year, she starred alongside Clint Eastwood in the action thriller The Eiger Sanction (1975). She appeared in an episode of the TV series Starsky & Hutch named "Black and Blue" in 1979.

Personal life and death

McGee was in a live-in relationship with Max Julien during the early-to-mid 1970s. In 1987, McGee married actor Carl Lumbly. They had one child, Brandon, born in 1988. McGee died of cardiac arrest on July 9, 2010, at the age of 65.^[2]

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Vonetta McGee at the Internet Movie Database
• Obituary – LA Times
• Obituary – New York Times
• Vonetta McGee at Find a Grave