Hattie Winston (born March 3, 1945) is an American film, television and Broadway actress. She is known for her roles as Margaret Wyborn on Becker, Lucy Carmichael in Rugrats, The Rugrats Movie, and the spin off series All Grown Up! and as a cast member of the PBS children's series The Electric Company.
Early life
Winston was born in Lexington, Mississippi[1] on March 3, 1945,[2] the daughter of Roosevelt Winston and Selena (née Thurmond).[3] She was raised in Greenville, Mississippi, where Winston attended local schools, which were segregated at the time.[4] She left the South at the age of 14 and settled in Manhattan, New York, graduating high school there.[5] Winston attended Howard University for two years, where she majored in music.[5]
In 1973, Winston joined the cast of PBS children's series The Electric Company during its third season,[14] produced by the Children's Television Workshop.[5] She replaced Lee Chamberlin on the series after Chamberlin’s departure at the end of the show’s second season in 1973. Winston's most notable character was Valerie the Librarian, the girlfriend of Easy Reader (portrayed by Morgan Freeman).[15] She also played many villainess roles versus Spider-Man on the Spidey Super Stories sketches, such as the Fox, the Thumper, the Queen Bee, and the Queen of Diamonds.[16] Winston remained with the show until it ended in 1977.[17]
Film and television
While appearing on The Electric Company, Winston was Veronique on soap opera The Edge of Night (1976).[18] Winston appeared regularly as nurse Toni Gillette in Nurse from 1981 to 1982.[19] She performed alongside Dorian Harewood in the television film The Hope Division (1987).[20] Winston was Pauline in the unsuccessful pilot Coming to America (1989), based on the film of the same name.[21] In 1990, Winston portrayed Nurse Flowers in Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital.
She provided the voice of Lucy Carmichael on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats,[25] as well as in the 1998 film version, The Rugrats Movie.[18] Winston reprised the role in the spin-off series All Grown Up!, which ran from 2003 through 2008.[18] During the 2000s, she played Margaret Turk, the mother of Dr. Christopher Turk (Donald Faison), on the NBC (later ABC) sitcom Scrubs.[26]
From 1998 through 2004, she portrayed nurse Margaret Wybourn on the CBS sitcom Becker, starring Ted Danson.[27] John Crook described Winston as a "valuable cog" on Becker.[28] In 2001, Winston received her second NAACP Image Award nomination, in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series as Margaret.
Following her run on Becker, Winston made guest appearances on ER, Cold Case, Castle and Mike & Molly. She had a recurring role as Sister Coriann Pearly in sitcom The Soul Man.
