Roxie Roker
Birthday: Born in 1929-08-28 in
Deathday: 1995-12-02
Roxie Albertha Roker was an American actress who portrayed Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television. Roker is the mother of rock musician Lenny Kravitz and paternal grandmother of actress Zoë Kravitz.
TV Credits
Murder, She Wrote
Character: Jennifer Bryce
An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases....
All in the Family
Character: Helen Willis
Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day....
227
Character:
A housewife sits on the stoop of her apartment building in a black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and discusses all manner of things with her neighbors....
The Jeffersons
Character: Helen Woodroow Willis
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family....
Punky Brewster
Character: Judge J.F. Taylor
An abandoned waif and her dog are taken in by a cranky apartment manager who becomes her guardian in this family-friendly sitcom....
Kojak
Character: Carol Lessonbee
A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City....
Cagney & Lacey
Character:
Mary Beth Lacey and Chris Cagney are teamed up as NYPD police detectives. Their opposing personalities (one is tough and the other sensitive) mesh to make this one of the great crime-fighting duos of all time....
A Different World
Character: Dean Barksdale
A Different World is a spin-off series from The Cosby Show and originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional mixed but historically black college in the state of Virginia. After Bonet's departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belle Whitley Gilbert and mathematics whiz Dwayne Wayne. The series frequently depicted members of the major historically black fraternities and sororities....
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
Character: Mrs. Russell
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television, and also became produced by Bickley-Warren Productions by the third season. The show originally aired on Tuesdays in prime time after sister series Full House. The show found its...
Movie Credits
The Day My Kid Went Punk
Character: Phyllis Brooks
A nerdy teen makes himself over as a punk rocker, embarrassing his conservative parents in the process....
Making of a Male Model
Character: Madge Davis
Kay Dillon, a successful modeling agent, meets the young and handsome ranch hand Tyler Burnett in Nevada. She can't help but notice his incredible good looks and invites him to move to New York and start working for her as a male model. Burnett accepts the invitation and goes to New York to start his modeling career. But Tyler longs for more in life: a woman to love and his own ranch. Can he remain the biggest male model in the industry, and still get his heart's desires? Is Kay the woman to...
Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid
Character: Mrs. Peoples
A young ghetto kid despairs of ever getting out of that environment and making something of himself, until one day he gets a job as an assistant in a veterinarian's office, and working with all the animals begins to affect his outlook on life....
Cosmic Slop
Character: (segment 'Space Traders')
In the tradition of The Twilight Zone, this bizarre, thought-provoking trilogy addresses the destiny of the world's minorities: Part I: A conservative African American politician must choose between his people's survival and appeasing his white colleagues when space aliens propose to share their profound knowledge in exchange for all black people on earth. Part II: The Virgin Mary's appearance in an inner-city housing project forces a Hispanic priest to face the hidden cultural origins of Wester...
Claudine
Character: Mrs. Winston
Claudine is a single mother in New York City who endures an exhausting commute to the suburbs where she works as a maid for wealthy families. In one carefully tended white community, she meets Roop, a charismatic but irresponsible garbage collector. Romance quickly ensues, but Claudine doubts that their relationship is good for her six children, and Rupert, despite his good nature, is reluctant to take on fatherhood....
Amazon Women on the Moon
Character: Female Republican (segment "Blacks Without Soul")
Centered around a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment....