Gone With the Wind Wiki
in: Actor, Cast

Hattie McDaniel

Sign in to edit
Mammybts

Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen (Prissy)

Hattie McDaniel (1893-1952) was an American actress who played Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939). She won an Oscar for the role, and became the first black Academy Award winner.

Gone With the Wind[]

Background[]

Hattie McDaniel was the youngest of thirteen children. Her siblings Otis McDaniel (1882), Samuel McDaniel (1886) and Etta McDaniel (1890) were also actors. Their parents had been slaves and had fought during the civil war. According to Hattie, their grandmother had worked as a slave on a plantation not unlike Tara.

Audition[]

The competition for the role of Mammy was very difficult. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt suggested her own maid. Hattie McDaniel was known as a comic actress, and didn't think she would get the part, but auditioned in an authentic uniform from the time and got the part, also at Clark Gable's recommendation.

Her on-screen chemistry with Vivien Leigh was noted during the audition process.

Filming[]

Hattie McDaniel was great friends with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Both would refer to McDaniel as one of the best parts about filming. Hattie McDaniel insisted on Mammy to be true to the book and not be a typically obedient slave. McDaniel's mammy was very much Scarlett's conscience and one of the few people (along with Rhett) who would occasionally criticise Scarlett. Additionally, McDaniels noted that Mammy would be more of a mother-figure to Scarlett than her actual mother. The two characters shared a closeness.

During the scene where Mammy and Rhett celebrate the birth of Bonnie Butler, Clark and Hattie had actually filled the bottles with booz and got quite drunk after a few takes.

After filming[]

Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend the premiere in Atlanta, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway. None of the Black actors were allowed to attend.

Weeks later, McDaniel became the first Black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award. While she had to sit at a separate table from her white castmates, McDaniel was allowed on stage when she won the award and gave her speech.

She later took her Mammy character on tour.

Trivia[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.