By Eunice Charles
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Harriet Rene “Khandi” Alexander (born September 4, 1957) is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She began her career as a dancer in the 1980s, and was a choreographer for Whitney Houston‘s world tours from 1988 to 1992.
During the 1990s, Alexander appeared in a number of films, including CB4 (1993), What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), Sugar Hill (1994), and There’s Something About Mary (1998). She starred as Catherine Duke in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio from 1995 to 1998. She also had a major recurring role in the NBC medical drama ER (1995–2001) as Jackie Robbins, sister to Dr. Peter Benton. Alexander also received critical acclaim for her leading performance in the HBO miniseries The Corner in 2000.
From 2002 to 2009, Alexander starred as Dr. Alexx Woods in the CBS police procedural series CSI: Miami. From 2010 to 2013, she starred as LaDonna Batiste-Williams in the HBO drama Treme. Later in 2013, she joined the cast of the ABC drama Scandal as Maya Lewis, Olivia Pope‘s mother, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2015. Alexander also received a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for playing Bessie Smith‘s sister Viola in the 2015 HBO film Bessie.
Khandi Alexander was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the daughter of Alverina Yavonna (Masters), an opera and jazz singer, and Henry Roland Alexander, who owned a construction company. She was raised in Queens, New York,[1] and was educated at Queensborough Community College. She appeared on Broadway, starring in Chicago, Bob Fosse‘s Dancin’, and Dreamgirls. She was a choreographer for Whitney Houston‘s world tour from 1988 to 1992, and also appeared as a dancer in Natalie Cole‘s video for “Pink Cadillac” in 1988.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Sarah Childress Polk (U.S. First Lady) –
- Anton Bruckner (composer) –
- Richard Wright (author) –
- Paul Harvey (radio personality) –
- Dick York (actor) –
- Mitzi Gaynor (dancer) –
- Damon Wayans (actor) –
- Mike Piazza (baseball player) –
- Jason David Frank (actor) –
- Beyonce Knowles (singer) –
Died
- Albert Schweitzer (physician) –
- Irene Dunne (actress) –
- Steve Irwin (died from a stingray barb wound to the chest while filming a documentary) –
- Joan Rivers (comedienne) –
- Willard Scott (television weatherman) –
Events
- Los Angeles founded by Spanish settlers –
- Russian decree issued concerning Northwest America –
- Ten-year-old Barney Flaherty became first newsboy in the U.S. He worked for New York Sun –
- George Eastman received a patent for the roll-film camera –
- First transit of McClure Strait (Northwest Passage) made by the US Navy icebreaker, Burton Island and US Coast Guard icebreaker, Northwind –
- Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel –
- U.S. swimmer, Mark Spitz, became the first person to win seven gold medals in a single Olympics –
- Bob Barker began hosting The Price is Right –
- Thieves stole $2 million in art from Montreal Museum of Fine Arts –
- A 127-pound cabbage won a prize at the Alaska State Fair –
- A 50-year overdue library book, The United States in World War I, was returned to the Lexington, Kentucky, public library. –
Weather
- Washington, D.C., got 4.4 inches of rain in 2 hours –
- A tornado struck Minneapolis, Minnesota –
- Tropical storm Delia dumped very heavy rain on Galveston, Texas, resulting in flooding –
- A strong dust devil whirled across the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport in Arizona, flipping a Cessna 182 plane and scattering papers in the National Weather service office. –
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