Early work

Uggams started in show business as a child in 1951, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on Beulah. That same year she appeared as a featured performer at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, alongside Ella Fitzgerald. She made her professional debut at the age of six on Jack Barry's NBC show "Stars And Stardust." Following that, she performed on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts". Uggams got her biggest break on The Lawrence Welk Show and was a regular on Sing Along with Mitch, starring record producer-conductor Mitch Miller.^[4] In January 1954, ten-year-old Uggams released a double-sided single by MGM Records.^[8] In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film Inherit the Wind. Uggams came to be recognized by TV audiences as an upcoming teen talent in 1958 on the musical quiz show series Name That Tune. A record executive was in the studio audience and signed her to a contract.^[9] Her records "One More Sunrise" (an English-language cover of Ivo Robic's "Morgen", 1959) and "House Built on Sand" made Billboard magazine's charts.

Television and film

She appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show singing The Beatles' Yesterday in 1965 and later had her own television variety show, The Leslie Uggams Show in 1969. This was the first network variety show to be hosted by a black person since The Nat King Cole Show of the mid-1950s.^[10] She had a lead role in the 1977 miniseries Roots, for which she received an Emmy nomination, as Kizzy.^[11] In 1979, she starred as Lillian Rogers Parks in the Emmy-winning miniseries Backstairs at the White House. She also made guest appearances on such television programs as Family Guy (as herself), I Spy, Hollywood Squares, The Muppet Show, The Love Boat and Magnum, P.I.. In 1996, Uggams played the role of Rose Keefer on All My Children.^[4] She won a 1983 Daytime Emmy Award as a host of the NBC game show Fantasy.^[12]

In her first film, she was neither seen, nor credited. In Inherit the Wind (1960), she sang the opening, "(Gimme Dat) Old Time Religion", and the closing, "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Her film career includes roles in Skyjacked (1972), Black Girl (1972) and Poor Pretty Eddie (1975), in which she played a popular singer who, upon being stranded in the deep South, is abused and humiliated by the perverse denizens of a backwoods town.^[13] She later appeared in Sugar Hill (1994) opposite Wesley Snipes, and played Blind Al in Deadpool (2016) in February 2016.^[14] In April 2016, she portrayed Leah Walker, the bipolar mother of Lucious Lyon in the hit Fox series Empire. Uggams appeared as Sadie in the 2017 television film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and in 2018, she returned as Blind Al in Deadpool 2.^[15]

She is an active Democrat and hosted a 1984 Democratic Telethon.^[16] In 1999 and 2021, she guest starred in two episodes of Family Guy. Additionally, she is also slated to reprise her role as Blind Al in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In 2023, Uggams voiced a character, Grandma, in My Dad the Bounty Hunter^[17] and appeared as Agnes in the film American Fiction.^[18]

Stage

Uggams was picked to star in Hallelujah, Baby! after Lena Horne declined the role of Georgina. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1967 and "created a new star" in Uggams.^[19] She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical (in a tie with Patricia Routledge).^[20] She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985.^[21] Uggams replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes on Broadway in March 1989. She had played Reno in a US tour in 1988–1989.^[22] Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003–2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004^[23] and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005.^[24] In 2001, she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II,^[25] receiving a nomination for the Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play.^[26] In January 2009, Uggams played Lena Horne in a production of the stage musical Stormy Weather at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, directed by Michael Bush and choreographed by Randy Skinner.^[27] In June 2012, Uggams played Muzzy in a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at The Muny in St. Louis.^[28] In 2014, she starred as Rose in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Nutmeg Summer Series production of Gypsy. In 2024, Uggams appeared in the role of Gran Mimi in the New York City Center Encores! production of Jelly's Last Jam, which ran from February 21 to March 3.

Film

Television

Honorary Degrees

• 2015: Awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut
• 2019: Awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan^[43]