Esther Rolle’s painful past

For crissakes - we don't want to watch 10 minutes of a robot-voiced crap video. What was her damned secret???

Damn! Damn! Damn!

She was a man!

So he killed her?

She killed James!

R1 Her secret ingredient in making cake was mayo and she lied about it.

Her past may be painful but her pastA was-a dinomite!

She stole "damn! Damn!! DAMN!!!!" from Mrs Payne.

Bea Arthur was her boss for several years.

She only had a short life to live!

The secret ingredient in her meatloaf was Alpo.

Lol r11 I remember that episode

Slap her, R1!

Esther was male

R14 is what passes for humor in Trannyland.

She was known to be male

People horribly abused her by calling her "Fester Rolle-Polle."

She didn’t have a neck.

My favorite episode of Good Times was when James mercilessly beat some mouthy neighbor kid and the family laughed that he only got it half as hard as they usually do. Good Times indeed. Idk why they got so preachy about Penny. I'd guess if James were still alive he'd have given Chip tips on proper whipping techniques.

Esther’s neck was the black version of Where’s Waldo…

Her secret side gig was as Miss Cleo's competitor.

I’m not listening to some damn robo voice…what’s the big painful secret?

Her husband said that it was a shame they couldn’t have children because she would have been a great mother. He had kids from a previous marriage so I’m assuming Esther couldn’t conceive.

She gave Will Smith a standing O in heaven.

And she was one voted “ugliest sitcom mom in TV history “. It’s true!

She must have sucked lots of cock

I don’t even think she was ugly. I don’t know what everyone carried on about.

She suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome.

I think she was ugly as fuck. And 10th of 18 children? Disgusting.

She loved Swiss roll.

Oh I don’t know.

R29 That was very common in the late 19th and early early 20th centuries in many families regardless of color or country. Child mortality rates were high and human life expectancy was much lower back then.

Was it that every black girl breaks a salad bowl when someone dies?

She wasn't really ugly per se, just super matronly looking.

I prefer Willona, love the 5th season when she left and Willona was the star

Willona and James would've made a much more of a believable couple than Florida and James did.

In OPs pic I thought that was Jabba the Hutt! She was super ugly alright. Not Whoopi ugly but close.

I didn't know her parents were Bahamian

She sho was ugly!

r38, you can hear it in her voice. a bit brit and theatrical. but i'm sure she trained too.

Everyone on this YouTube channel (Celebrity Tribute) dies a painful death.

Here's their questionable tribute to DL patron saint Vivian Vance (which uses a picture of Viv's sister in the thumbnail):

She made alpo meatloaf

So is that weird YouTube channel the Died Painfully network?

[quote]Died Painfully

Good. Good.

Poor thing just never learned to Rolle with it.

Her nickname was Tootsie.

So what was it?

None of your fuckin business!!!!!

I listened to the whole thing…no effing secret.

I don’t think she was ugly.

I wonder who runs the Celebrity Tribute channel.

It's all clickbait.

Oh she was ugly

I did like her good times character name Florida

R51, But, she knew how to toss a salad.

She had an unconventional beauty. Her demeanor was very elegant.

Was she into voodoo?

R54 feels the same way about Dionne Warwick.

She had a great face and a regal demeanor.

She was an excellent role model. She and the husband on that show brought a measure of gravitas to what would otherwise have been just another silly sitcom.

R46 She was a transvestite soap opera actress!?

FLORIDA’S TRAGIC LIFE is the forerunner to FLORIDA STATE’S tragic present.

She was no Mabel King.

Ugh, the ugly comments are mean and I suspect, meant racially.

She was a moon faced, nice looking, matronly woman.

Kind of your average mom type.

She was no Hattie McDaniel.

I’ve never seen a mom that looked like her

R54, with that neck, how did she keep her head above anything 🥴

R33 I’m pretty sure it was a punch bowl, they were having a party in the ghetto in the 1970s, I doubt they would have a huge bowl of salad unless it was Cole slaw or potato salad.

[quote] I’m assuming Esther couldn’t conceive.

Maybe she had a narrow urethra.

R65, I was JUST about to say “I thought it was a punch bowl.”

R67 sadly I don’t think many people know what they are anymore.

R68, are you going to be serving punch at your next "Do"?

When I worked for the Museum of Television and Radio, TV Guide had a 50th Anniversary party. Every person who'd ever graced the cover was invited.

Esther Rolle showed up, and she was alone. I saw and chatted with her for well over an hour. We talked about Maude, and Good Times, and how she quit when she didn't feel the shows were a good reflection of black youth. I asked her if it got better when she returned. She said "well, the made an effort, in the beginning..." She told me how she went in to do a voice over for some Disney cartoon movie. Everyone at the VO session was young, so the whole time, she assumed no one knew who she was. She said when the VO was finished, to her shock they all stood up and applauded. Many of them came up to her and said how much they loved her, and Maude, and Good Times. She had tears in her eyes.

About 10 days later, she died. A friend of mine joked that I'd bored her to death. Anyway, I think she got a kick out of someone my age I was like 25 at the time, knowing so much about her career. She was a neat lady.

R69 actually my punch is to die for!

[quote] When I worked for the Museum of Television and Radio,

Oh, wow! Marry me!

I HAVE to get there one day.

R71, somehow I don't think you're talking about a beverage anymore.

What a bunch of nasty bastards some you are. Poor women does not merit all this nastiness. She is dead ffs! Throw your bile at people who deserve it, like every single kardashian and the trash they are surrounded by.

I love these threads, when the cunty claws come out. Keep it up, cunts. Esther/Jabba the Hutt deserves all the vitriol.

What a lovely story, R70!

A friend of mine used to work the TCM Festival every year and she had tons of sad stories about the old stars. Some assistant was supposed to be helping Mickey Rooney get ready for an appearance but someone dropped the ball so old Mickey was off in a corner by himself looking a bit lost. My friend helped him with his mic pack and chatted with him for a bit and got him to where he needed to be.

She even had a nice story about awful Jon Voight. He was there with Burt Reynolds and other co-stars for a Deliverance screening and this was not terribly long before Burt died. He had a hip/knee/some kind of leg surgery not long before the festival and wasn't getting around very well...moved very awkwardly. They bring in Burt and Jon in a golf cart and Burt is having a hard time getting out of the cart and while gofers rushed to help him, Jon got all showbizzy and chummy with the press standing there and joked around with them and distracting them from the sad sight of Burt looking very infirm. My friend wasn't a big Jon Voight fan but respected him for being a good egg and looking out for poor old Burt.

[quote] Poor women does not merit all this nastiness.

She was a big gal, but I’d hardly call her “women.”

This is a thread for nastiness within a website that fosters nastiness.

Thank you for sharing that nice story about her. I don’t know why everyone’s being so mean about her. I’ve never heard anything bad about her.

R78 within a global human society that is, largely, pretty stupid and nasty.

I was just a little kid when Good Times originally aired as a weekly series. The thing I noted about her then was the unique sound quality of her voice.

Not how she looked r81?

I never watched Good Times and thought "Wow! Florida is really ugly!"

She seemed like a nice Black lady mom to me.

Now, JJ...he seemed kinda hideous. But, at least he was funny.

And, John Amos was hot. Even at 10 I could see that.

She was nice but weird looking. Same with JJ and Buffalo butt

wonderful actress

She was into weird psychic shit

She looks Caribbean. I can recognize Trinidadians, Guyanese, Somalis, Nigerians, Sudanese. They have certain features that set them apart from other black people. Just like white people.

No, R82. To me, she looked like herself. I've actually never been one to label others as being ugly. Likewise, I had been good looking in my younger days, but I never much cared about it.

-R81

That bitch was fugly.

She left a starring role in a profitable sitcom because of her values. She deserves respect for that

Butter face, butter body. Probably ate her Nutter Butters dipped in butter.

Jabba the Hutt was grotesque. Rolle was scary looking.

R72 those were amazing times.

I got a couple details wrong. It was actually the 45th anniversary of TV Guide, and the party was on September 15, 1998. Miss Rolle died on November 17, 1998.

That was one of the BEST jobs I ever had. I loved those parties so much. Got to meet so many legends, and people I admire. And on the other hand, there was Marty Ingalls.

[quote] A friend of mine used to work the TCM Festival every year and she had tons of sad stories about the old stars.

Let's hear some of them! I'd really like to hear stories about the old stars.

As for Esther Rolle I always thought she looked "real." Like a real person you'd see on a bus or in a grocery store. I thought that was such a great quality for her to have. I thought she and John Amos were somewhat mismatched though; she looked much older than him and he was much more attractive. But they interacted well together on GT.

R79 she was perfectly lovely when I met her. Humble, soft spoken. She was dressed in African type garb with a black turban. Stylish, in its way.

No idea why people would be mean about her.

R93 What about Marty Ingalls? I don't mean to derail the thread but you can't just drop a name and not elaborate!

[Quote]She looks Caribbean. I can recognize Trinidadians, Guyanese, Somalis, Nigerians, Sudanese. They have certain features that set them apart from other black people. Just like white people.

You're right.

[Quote]Esther Rolle was born in Pompano Beach, Florida to Bahamian immigrants

For one of her final screen appearances she took on the role of Mammy in Scarlett the sequel to GWTW. Remember that is the role which won the first Oscar for a black person.

R96 at any event he ever came to for the Museum, and he came to them all with Shirley Jones, he was always the loudest, most obnoxious person in the room. For example, at that TV Guide party, they had blow ups of several TV Guide covers though out the room. He took it upon himself to bring a giant poster sized blow up of his I'm Dickens, He's Fenster TV Guide cover. John Astin was there, and while it was cool for them to have a photo op together, Marty acted as if it was a Beatles reunion or something. Ordering people around, saying stuff like "Don't you understand what an important moment this is?" Shirley Jones would always be there, dying of embarrassment. It was so clear on her face, every single time. I mean, that must have been her whole life, because that's what was happening every time I saw them together.

R99 Thanks!

In regards to the YouTube video that starts the threat

In the comments section “I’m sorry. I’m tired of the misleading titles of these stories. I thought maybe I missed something about Ms Rolle. This video repeated information over and over about her acting career but never said that she died painfully when her husband revealed her secret. What secret? Don’t give your video a name that has nothing to do with what you are talking about. I think Ms Rolle was a wonderful actress and reminded me of my own mother sometimes. In clicking on this video I thought I was going to learn something new but learned nothing except the misleading title.”

That stupid bitch gave her real age.

[quote]Lol [R11] I remember that episode

"The Lord is my German shepherd"

From one of my favorite episodes:

I Never thought about her looks for a second. Just like I never thought about Jean Stapleton's looks. They were good actresses. Rolle did carry herself and project dignity. This is a gross thread.

Some people are easily offended. Why they come to the DL, I’ll never know….

Are diastemas more common among people of African descent? (Not to derail thread; just something I've noticed over the years.)

[quote]Remember that is the role which won the first Oscar for a black person.

The role won an Oscar for Hattie McDaniel.

R108 Which I knew, but I also know that if you start introducing names into a thread like this, some posters get confused. I wanted to keep the focus on Ms. Rolle. You can check my posting history, I've actually posted about Hattie McDaniel, a lot, on DL, she is one of my favorite movie stars of all time.

R109 is such a cunt.

She never cleaned underneath the piano.

Bahamian women have those big faces and are closer in appearance to their ancestors. There wasn't miscegenation in the Bahamas like there was in the U.S.

She loved Purim.

Nice story R70. I don't understand all the hate. Esther Rolle was NOT an ugly woman. She had a regal, haughty air and an attractive manner of speaking. She was what some would call handsome.

Florida from Florida

She wasn’t ugly, but she still didn’t have a neck. Her Afro was always on point.

But her neck? Secret Agent.

She was ugly. I don’t care how nice she was. She was unattractive and ugly.

She was a full of shit, con, too.

"She wore a pearl necklace".

Clutching.

r117 Kind of like your personality!

Raaaaaal ugly and unpleasant!

R117 is right, cunt. Rolle was a turd on two legs and looked horrible when she was super old. Rolle was as ugly as JJ was stupid and illiterate.

R121- She was DAMN

DAMN

DAMN

Pretty compared to

AUnt Esther on Sanford And Son

R75- Apparently YOUR cunty claws 🦞 have come out too.

R36- Isabel Sanford was TWENTY years older than Sherman Helmsley. I did not know that when the show was on the air and thought they were about the same age.

She is the Candyman of Cabrini Green.

She was better looking than Linda Hunt.

R124 It was Helmsley's balding Bozo the Clown hairstyle that aged him.

R124

I want her to smile at me and call me honey chil’.

A voodoo high priestess who is in hell burning 🔥

I also did not know that he was GAY in real life.

I can't remember anything she was in aside from GT, but as others have noted, she brought a proud dignity to the role of Florida, but she also looked like a real person who lived a tough life. I don't know if she was ever a mother, but she had a good rapport with the kids - loving, but taking no bullshit. I think I remember reading somewhere that she got fed up with JJ & all that DYNO-MITE because it made them seem so buffoonish.

It's funny how Norman Lear sitcoms in the 70s dealt with topics today that would send everyone into a tizzy.

[quote] It was Helmsley's balding Bozo the Clown hairstyle

What the hell does Leona have to do with this?

Norman Lear was a first class prick towards any black people who questioned his judgment on the way he portrayed blacks on his shows. Ask John Amos or Eric Monte. He felt like they should have kissed his ass for life because he gave them work.

R132- She was on Maude for two seasons.

[quote] He felt like they should have kissed his ass for life

Why the past tense? I'm still alive!

R134 I guess not just black people.

Years ago my friend's mother was in the ladies room at LAX, she took her rings off to wash her hands and wiped them with a paper towel and accidentally threw the rings and paper towels away. She was looking through the bin to retrieve her rings and heard someone behind her say "May I help you, dear?" She turned and it was Esther Rolle. She said she was a sweet lady.

Lies r138 try again.

I always thought she had a pretty smile.

DL people- Which team are you on?

Team Esther Rolle or Team Mable King?

She wasn't hired to be attractive. They hired to to be matronly, which suited her best.

R142- I guess the same reason they hired Sada Thompson to play Kate Lawrence.

R138 wins for most pointless anecdote ever. Fucking cretin.

Why are people complaining about how she looked? If Good Times was cast today, the actress playing Florida would have to look like Beyonce, and probably wouldn't even really be old enough to have given birth to her TV kids? Remember the

The 70s had TV characters who looked like real people because Norman Lear and others hired stage actors to star in their TV shows.

[quote]R138 wins for most pointless anecdote ever. Fucking cretin.

How charming you sound. Enjoy your rage issues!

R145 Which is why things suck now. There are no more character actors. Everyone has to be thin, gorgeous and look 'young' forever.

So boring.

don't bother with those robo voice youtube videos, they are all low quality garbage to generate ad revenues, those youtube videos usually have clickbait titles "the shocking truth....", "the sad ending..." , "why we have not heard...for years"

shows like Good Times and Sanford & Son were comforting

R138 is trying to gay up some fictitious encounter with Jabba the Hutt. She needs to be stabbed ten trillion times in her vagina.

R149- What's Happening !! was comfort food too.

I know she married some losers but she was a great swimmer.

Winning an award for her part in Summer Of My German Soldier (1978)

Oh r152, really?

Don't care about her past, but she was painful to look at.

Ugly

Wasn't she in Star Wars?

Ahh yes. Jaba!

[quote] Just like I never thought about Jean Stapleton's looks

My dad hated the way Jean looked. He’d make fun of her weak chin and long feet, calling them ‘cartons’.

At least Jean had one chin. Rollie had several and was always sweaty looking.

Esther had mean eyes too.

Good times premiered the year I was born. I remember crying uncontrollably every time Florida was on TV because she was so ugly.

R159 I hated her because of her quivering voice and the fact she sounded and acted like a full on retard.

People do not say retard anymore

The most tragic thing is she never got any of that John Amos D.

She fit perfectly in her role on Good Times but I remember her shilling once or twice for that awful psychic hotline. I felt then she must have fallen hard.

we are bringing back #retard.

get over it.

Put an accent on it - re’tard.

So sophisticated.

JJ is some sort of right wing deplorable, isn’t he? And either friends or FWB with horse face Ann Coulter…he had awful things to say about Pres Obama on his website. He’s gotten even uglier in his seventies.

OP, what in the fuck is wrong with you for posting some stupid video?

And the rest of you who replied to this have shit for brains

I don’t like how the producers of GOOD TIMES turned her into a self righteous Jesus loving harpy. Never letting James take short cuts to get out of the ghetto. I know that a few people in my old neighborhood sold reefer and bootleg so that they were able to move their families to a better part of town, or to the suburbs. I know that white folks did too. Florida was an old school Debbie Downer.

Says drug addict atheist r171

Her Good Times apartment was always fithly. "You got a rag, clean your fucking sty, pig!"

In her later years she looked like Jabba the Hutt.

When she originally left Good Times, there was discussion of bringing in a new character who would be her younger sister named Minnesota, played by Cicely Tyson, who would take care of the Evans kids. but then they arranged to bring rolle back.

Rolle-poly probably had to take a pay cut.

R175 The Carol Burnett Show did a take-off of “Maude,” which they renamed “Broad.” Isabel Sanford played the newly-arrived maid who announces, “My name is New Jersey.” I thought Sanford’s delivery of the line, which was a take-off of Rolle’s delivery, was hilarious.

The older she got, the shorter her neck was. Had she made it to a hundred, she’d be headless 🤭🤭🤭

She sure was ugly.

I'm black and Florida annoyed me so much. She reminded me of every overemotional religious black lady who seemed mentally enslaved. Hey, let's not improve our situation, let's just let God do it. I hated the episodes where James and the kids would find a way to make money that wasn't the most ethical and Florida would lecture them to do the right thing. It was so annoying, you're poor and black and want to get out of the ghetto. Why play by society's rules that weren't built for us at that time? Florida and JJ seemed liked minstrel show caricatures, annoying and unfunny. James was the best part of the show because he was just tired of bullshit. I liked Thelma and Wilona too as they were modern and in the 20th century unlike Florida who was Flanderized. The last seasons weren't there same without James. I can't believe either Esther or John for leaving the show. Janet Jackson was cute but Penny was a boring character. I always found JJ so ugly to look at, I hated he became the main character after Florida left .

Florida really did hold them back. Like when James found the money from the supermarket, she made him give it back in full. If I was living in the ghetto, I’d be like James and say the hell with it. Also had did florida get 2 husbands and Wilona couldn’t get one?

Esther Rolle and John Amos did not look the same age. She looked like she could have been his mom too.

Wilona couldn’t find a man because of her gossip addiction. She couldn’t shut up. Probably gossiped in her sleep.

R1, I've seen this thread pop up on my feed from time to time since it same out but never clicked on it. I want to say you are hilarious. I literally spit out my drink.

I mean I think most straight men would take gossip which they also could enjoy over being nagged and lectured about God and doing the right thing all the time. At least Wilona seemed like someone you could go out and have fun with. What could Florida do besides complain?

A head like a Jack-o-Lantern

Where is it? Find it and Oprah will give you a new Pontiac!

Esther Rolle wasn't funny

Remember that episode where James’ old army buddy came to visit him? He was some sort of preacher and wanted to take James out on the road with him? Quick money for real. James could have put up with the scamming until he made some decent coin. But Florida talked him out of it. And they stayed poor. Or when James was offered a job building the Alaska Pipeline and Willona had to open up her big mouth, talking that mess about the female entertainment offered to the workers. Then all of these stupid situations occurred within minutes of each other- Michael almost gets jumped by a gang and Thelma was almost molested…really poor writing. Willona was just jealous of Florida and didn’t want her to move on up without her. Florida sabotaged their chances, or rather the short-sighted white writers did. Show some nuance, FFS! Life is full of gray areas, and the show failed to exploit them. In the end, it was all about JJ’s cooning.

As she aged, she looked like her skull collapsed down upon itself.

I agree. It was her payment for being into voodoo.

They held her neck hostage in the underworld.

Why was Wilona a single black woman with a decent job living in the projects?

She owned her own business too r195

It took me decades to notice, but Florida Evans wore orange in almost every single episode of Good Times, until the character became a bus driver, married a grumpy atheist, and took on violent street gangs in abandoned buildings singlehandedly.

[quote]but Florida Evans wore orange in almost every single episode

At this point the jokes pretty much write themselves.

she was a unique, wonderful actress and we are all better for watching her...and her neck rolles...

Esther Rolle was not funny

She wasn’t sexy either

She tried to foist psychic phone calls off on people.

She loved to shit

John Amos's upcoming autobiography is entitled "Florida Man."

There’s Reddit pages and Lipstick alley pages on Florida Evans and what a hater she was. But people tend to conflate the actress with the character and think insulting Esther’s appearance is a way to hate on Florida.

I don’t do windows and I don’t do comedy.

Moonface!

Was she ever on Team CBS for Battle of the Network Stars?