Born on March 18, 1963, Vanessa Lynn Williams has a much storied career. After her stint as Miss America in 1983 was abruptly cut short by scandal, she had a successful career as a singer and actress.
Born in Tarrytown, New York, Williams became the first African-American to become Miss America in 1983. Ten months into her reign, nude photos of her taken before her reign surfaced, and eventually found their way to Penthouse magazine. She was forced to resign her title the following year, with the title going to first runner-up Suzette Charles. She initially filed a lawsuit against photographer Tom Chiapel and Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, but later dropped the suit, saying that “the best revenge is success.”
Williams then became known as a singer. She released her first album, The Right Stuff, in 1988. Her third single, “Dreamin’”, broke into the Billboard Hot 100, and she earned three Grammy nominations the following year. She went on to produce six more albums, which cemented her reputation as a renowned R&B and soul singer.
She later went into acting, first in to film, first appearing in Under the Gun in 1988, and gaining prominence in the 1997 drama Soul Food, where she won the the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress. She eventually moved on gaining theater, when she debuted on the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1994. She earned a Tony nomination for her performance in Into the Woods, staged in 2002.
But it was in television where she collected the most credits as an actress, first appearing as herself in an episode of The Love Boat in 1984. She has appeared in multiple television movies and miniseries, as well as several guest appearances in shows such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, Deep Space Nine, Ally McBeal and Boomtown. Her most notable starring role is in the successful series Ugly Betty, where she plays the scheming magazine editor Wilhelmina Slater; her performance was nominated twice for an Emmy award for Best Comedy Supporting Actress.
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