Actor
Clarice Taylor was an American stage, film and television actress.
Born in Buckingham County, Virginia but raised in Harlem, New York, Taylor was best known for her recurring role on television on The Cosby Show as Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable's (Bill Cosby) mother, Anna Huxtable. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1986 for the role. She also played Harriet on Sesame Street and appeared as Grady's cousin Emma on Sanford and Son.
Taylor started working in the theatre-with the American Negro Theatre-at a time when there were few opportunities for African-American actors. To support herself she followed in her father's (Leon B. Taylor, Sr.) footsteps and went to work for the U.S. Post Office. In the 1960s she got her big break that enabled her to act full time. Taylor was one of the founding members of the Negro Ensemble Company, headquartered in the East Village on St. Marks Place.
While working with the NEC she got her first offer of a movie role in Change of Mind. Her next film role was as "Minnie" in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. In 1971 she played Birdie in Clint Eastwood's Play Misty For Me. In 1973, she brought a role she had pioneered off-Broadway to film, playing Gladys Brooks in Five on the Blackhand Side.
Taylor appeared in The Wiz as Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North. Her most recent performance was in a touring production of her own one-woman show, Moms, for which she won an Obie Award. Her most recent film appearance was a small role in Wayne Wang's film Smoke.
Character
Anna Huxtable is Cliff's mother. Anna first appears in episode fourteen of season one, "Independence Day". The character is named after Cosby's real-life mother, Anna.
Anna Huxtable was both born in North Carolina before moving to Philadelphia and, later, New Jersey. She, her husband, as well as Cliff and Clair, and Clair's parents, attended the civil rights March on Washington in 1963.
In the seasons two and three, Cliff and his family organized a performance for his parents' anniversaries, in the form of lip-sync and dance routines to Ray Charles' "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)" in season two, and James Brown's "I Got the Feeling" in season three.
