Jonelle Allen

Jonelle Allen Biography

Jonelle Allen is an American actress, singer, and dancer.

Born in New York City, Allen grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill among neighbors that included Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, and Johnny Hodges, all of whom had an influence on her career choice. She made her Broadway debut at the age of six in The Wisteria Trees, Joshua Logan's Americanized adaptation of The Cherry Orchard starring Helen Hayes. As a child she also made regular appearances on a local children's television series, The Merry Mailman, hosted by Ray Heatherton.

Allen returned to Broadway for a 1955 revival of Finian's Rainbow. She was in the cast of the original off-Broadway production of Hair at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and also appeared in George M! before receiving critical acclaim and a Tony Award nomination for Two Gentlemen of Verona, which earned her New York Drama Critics' Circle, Drama Desk, Theatre World, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance. Despite her success, it proved to be her last Broadway appearance to date.

Allen's film credits include Cotton Comes to Harlem, The Hotel New Hampshire, and The River Niger, for which she won an NAACP Image Award. She had a regular role in the dramatic series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman from 1993-97. Other television appearances include Barney Miller, The Love Boat, All in the Family, Trapper John, M.D., Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, ER, and Girlfriends. She played a lesbian prison inmate in the 1975 television movie Cage Without a Key, which starred Susan Dey.

Her most notable roles are the flamboyant and outspoken Doreen Jackson on the NBC soap opera, Generations and Lucinda Cavender, the vampire witch in the horror comedy film The Midnight Hour. Before her role of Doreen on Generations, Jonelle played ambitious salesgirl turned boutique manager Stacey Russell, on the short-lived primetime soap, Berrenger's.

Allen appeared as the legendary Harlem Jazz Queen Florence Mills in Harlem Renaissance at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She is currently working at the Conservatory of the Arts in San Juan Capistrano.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1970	Cotton Comes to Harlem	Secretary
1970	The Cross and the Switchblade	Bishop Deb
1972	Come Back, Charleston Blue	Carol
1974	Wide World Mystery	Eva	Episode: 'Legacy of Blood'
1974	Police Woman	Laurette Blake/Maxine	Played Laurette in the 1974 episode 'The End Game' & played Maxine in the 1975 episode 'Above & Beyond'
1975	Cage Without a Key	Tommy
1975	Foster and Laurie	Jacqueline Foster
1975	Barney Miller	Officer Turner	Episode: 'Hot Dogs'
1975	Police Story	Mary Sue/Merrily Goodwin	Played Mary Sue in the episode 'The Execution' & played Merrily in the episode 'The Company Man'
1976	The American Woman: Portraits of Courage	Rosa Parks
1976	The River Niger	Ann Vanderguild
1976	Joe Forrester		Episode: 'The Boy Next Door'
1978	What's Happening!!	Love-is-Life	Episode: 'Rerun Sees the Light"
1978	The Love Boat	Andrea Martin	Episode: 'Gopher the Rebel/Cabin Fever/Pacific Princess Overture'
1978	All in the Family	Marabel	Episode: 'Archie's Other Wife'
1979	The White Shadow	Shelley	Episode: 'Airball'
1979	Vampire	Brandy
1980	Brave New World	Fanny Crowne
1980	Palmerstown, U.S.A.	Bessie Freeman	Appeared in 11 episodes, 1980"1981
1982	Victims	Maydene Jariott
1982	Trapper John, M.D.		Episode: 'Medicine Man'
1983	Cagney & Lacey	Elizabeth Carter/Claudia Petrie	Played Elizabeth in the 1983 episode 'Open & Shut Case' & played Claudia in the 1984 episode 'A Killer's Dozen'
1984	Hill Street Blues	Linda Talbot	Episode: 'The Count of Monty Tasco'
1984	The Hotel New Hampshire	Sabrina
1985	Berrenger's	Stacey Russell
1985	The Midnight Hour	Lucinda Cavender
1986	The Penalty Phase	Susan Jansen
1987	The Hitchhiker	Sunny	Episode: 'Made for Each Other'
1987	Werewolf		Episode: 'Big Daddy'
1989	Generations	Doreen Jackson
1992	The Royal Family	Nina Martin	Episode: 'The Big Stink'. Episode was never aired.
1992	Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive	Madeline Garrick
1993	Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman	Grace	Appeared in 106 episodes, 1993"1998
1997	The Eddie Files	Eddie's Music Teacher	Episode: 'Patterns: The Big Concert'
1998	Next Time	Evelyn
1999	Blues for Red	Dora
1999	Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Movie	Grace
1999	Twice in a Lifetime	Dr. Grace Grant-Heistings, M.D./Nurse Daisy Bradford	Episode: 'Healing Touch'
2000	ER	Debbie Marlin	Episodes: 'Foreign Affairs' & 'Rescue Me'
2001	Flossin	Viola
2002	Strong Medicine	Connie	Episode: 'Stages'
2003	Mr. Barrington	Mother Anne
2005	As Seen on TV	Shauna
2007	Girlfriends	Eleanor	Episode: 'Operation Does She Yield'
2008	Float	Madge

This webpage uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jonelle_Allen" and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Reality TV World is not responsible for any errors or omissions the Wikipedia article may contain.

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