Leslie Uggams has had an enthralling career as a theatre and movie actor.
The Harlem-born singer and actress is best recognised for her role in the Deadpool series, but she has had a brilliant career spanning seven decades.
But, behind the scenes, her personal life might be the subject of a film after she married White Australian man Grahame Pratt in 1965, since their love affair has overcome all chances of interracial love…
Leslie was a great singer who cut a song for MGM at the age of 10 in 1953. Encouraged by her aunt, singer Eloise Uggams, she attended the Professional Children’s School of New York and the famed Julliard School of Music in New York.
But her musical success was just the beginning of her adventure; by 1969, she had her own TV variety show, “The Leslie Uggams Show,” which was the first network variety show hosted by a black person since “The Nat King Cole Show.”
Behind the scenes, though, she met and fell in love with actor Grahame Pratt. After meeting at Professional Children’s School in New York, where they were both pupils, the couple ran into one other again in Sydney during one of Leslie’s celebrity tours in Australia.
Leslie was aware of the consequences of dating a white man because she had done so in her adolescence, and her aunt had advised her not to explore the idea.
“I remember the shock I got once when I was dating a white boy,” Leslie told Ebony in 1967.
“He emailed me a colour photograph of himself.” It was shown to my aunt. He was a handsome young man with lovely hair. I thought he was stunning. But my aunt took one glance at me and began lecturing me. ‘Well, I suppose he’s okay,’ she said, ‘but only for dates, eh, honey? You’ll marry a fine [Black] fella when you’re ready to settle down for good, won’t you?’”
Leslie stated that she continued to visit Grahame after their fortuitous meeting.
“I found myself really falling for him, which was quite surprising given that I was only 21.”
Despite Leslie’s misgivings about her family’s reaction and what it would mean for the two of them if Grahame had to relocate to the United States for Leslie’s work, the two had fallen in love. Grahame visited her in New York after they were engaged for 5 months.
“Knowing my family’s views on mixed marriages, I wanted to know if they would truly accept Grahame and not just tolerate him,” she explained.
Leslie, on the other hand, had nothing to worry about because Grahame was an Australian.
“He lacked the self-consciousness about his situation that many white Americans do.” He readily blended in with all of my friends…because he liked them. And they both liked him, the men and the females.”
