Carol Dickerson Sutton
Actress
” The Queen of New Orleans Theatre “
by DALE RICARDO SHIELDS
Page 1 – 6
Born: December 3, 1944
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died: December 10, 2020 (aged 76)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Biography
Carol Joan Dickerson Sutton was an actress in film, theater, and television, and was best known for her role as Nurse Pam in the film Steel Magnolias. Dickerson was born on December 3, 1944, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Marguerite Bush and Amos Dickerson. She graduated from Xavier Prep School, and enrolled in Xavier University, but dropped out of college to marry Archie Sutton, a professional football player with the Minnesota Vikings.
In 1968 she began working with an anti-poverty agency called Total Community Action. In order to be more effective in her work, she attended Texas Southern University in Houston, where she earned a certification in early childhood development. She worked with the organization for the next forty-three years, until her retirement in 2011.
Sutton made her acting debut in the late 1960s in the Dashiki Project Theatre Productions, founded by Theodore Gilliam, and based out of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in New Orleans, where her husband was a member. Her first play was “A Hand is On the Gate.” She moved on to television in 1974 in the Autobiography of Jane Pittman. Throughout her career, Sutton appeared in over one hundred films and television shows, including playing a policewoman in The Pelican Brief with Denzel Washington, a judge in The Big Easy with Dennis Quaid, and most recently “Aunt Martha” in Ava DuVernay’s hit show Queen Sugar. Sutton was featured in the Alicia Keys video “The Fire We Make” in 2013. Sutton was honored with a Big Easy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. She took on the role of stage manager for a 2015 production of “Our Town,” at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre’.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The annual ceremony recognized achievements in acting, directing, and choreography, as well as lighting, costume, and set design, for the dozens of productions that ran throughout New Orleans over the past year. At the event, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Carol Sutton, an actress whose decades of experience were an inspiration to many of the young actors in the room. Carol began her acting career at Dillard University four decades ago and has been involved in a multitude of stage productions ever since. Although nominated several times, Sutton had never won a Big Easy. “I felt like the Susan Lucci of the Big Easy Awards,” she joked in her acceptance speech. In addition to her work in New Orleans theaters, Sutton has made a name for herself on the big screen as well. She has appeared in 54 movies and television programs since 1974, including stand-out performances in the TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and films such as Monster’s Ball, Runaway Jury, Ray, and, most recently, The Help, in which her character delivers a poignant speech about life as a maid in Jackson, Miss. Sutton can be seen on screen right now in the New Orleans-shot film adaptation of 21 Jump Street, in which she plays a principal at the high school the two main characters, played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, attend. She noted, “I went from the maid to the principal!” – https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/article_5e199a85-0fce-50ef-90e5-1ada11f8b4a3.html
“Carol Sutton was practically the Queen of New Orleans theater, having graced the stages across the city for decades,” Cantrell wrote. “The world may recognize her from her performances in movies and on TV — whether it’s ‘Treme’ or ‘Claws,’ or ‘Runaway Jury’ or ‘Queen Sugar’ — but we will always remember her commanding stage presence, her richly portrayed characters and the warm heart she shared with her fellow cast and crew in productions such as ‘4000 Miles’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ May she rest in God’s perfect peace.” – Mayor LaToya Cantrell [Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana]
Edward R. Cox (Artist)
One of two one-of-a-kind requested medallion doubloons to be placed onto a float honoring all female krewes, past and present. The two specialties shall be the focal point Queens of the house float for two amazing women, Carol Dickerson Sutton and Sheri Marina
Carol Sutton Interview
2012
In 2012, Sutton received a New Orleans Lifetime Achievement Award.
Carol Sutton Video Portrait
2019
Artistic Career
Carol joined the Dashiki Project Theatre in the 1960s.
“The Dashiki Project Theatre was founded in 1968 and was initially funded by a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity. The primary goal of the theatre was to present “an accurate portrayal of the Black experience for the Black community.” The Artistic Director for the company was Dr. Ted Gilliam, who is also the Director of the Drama department at Dillard University. The majority of the Actors and Actresses came from Dillard University’s Players’ Guild.” – Wikipedia.org
Marie Slade, Harold Evans, Danielle Edinburgh-Wilson, Carol Dickerson Sutton, Gwendolyne Foxworth, Adella Gautier, Donald Matthews, Norbert Davidson, and Patricia Hill
The Amistad Research Center and Dashiki Project Theatre celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dashiki Project Theatre, one of the country’s prominent community theaters.
“Dashiki Project Theatre demonstrated a rare commitment to excellence and freedom in the arts of the South. Dashiki Project Theatre compellingly spoke to the needs of the Black community, at a time when Black identity was in crisis. By the year 1975, Dashiki Project Theatre was known in New Orleans as “New Orleans Most Productive Theatre” (Dashiki Project Theatre Fifteenth Anniversary1968-83).” – Stanley R. Coleman
At Dashiki she honed her acting skills and became one of what former Times-Picayune theater critic David Cuthbert dubbed the Dashiki Divas.
“Women were also central to the company as performers and directors. The plays that Dashiki Project Theatre selected gave great opportunities to women to perform and garner praises from the media. From Dashiki’s inception, theatre critics in the New Orleans area were fascinated by the performances of the women. Numerous critical and positive reviews give evidence of the power of these actresses.”
Pat McGuire Hill, Gwendolyne Foxworth, Adelle Gautier, Barbara Tasker, and Carol Sutton
“Critics like David Cuthbert acclaimed the performances of such Dashiki notables as Carol Sutton, Patricia McGuire, Claudia Miller, Adella Gautier, Barbara Tasker, Thelma Hinson, and Andre Cazenave.” – Stanley R Coleman
Sutton devoted much of her career to the theater and also served as an acting teacher in her hometown. She recorded a large number of supporting roles in American film and television, participating in productions such as The Pelican Brief, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, American Horror Story: Coven, True Detective, Kidnap, The Last Exorcism, Outer Banks, and Killer Joe.
Carol Sutton | One Womxn, One Show: An Ode to Breonna Taylor
Petition
Scores of people around the city of New Orleans and beyond are devastated by the loss of an icon: Carol Dickerson Sutton. She was our Cicely Tyson, starring in over 100 television and movie roles as well as dozens of theatre productions across decades. I can’t tell you how many actors she has influenced over the years, including myself! This petition is to garner support for a way to honor unsung artists such as Ms. Sutton and so many other New Orleans natives in a tangible way.
This petition is to show support for the idea to create a New Orleans Walk of Fame, starting with recognition of Ms. Sutton’s legacy. Please add your name if you stand behind the creation of Stars, cemented publicly in the same spirit of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrating New Orleans’ own.
