A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled on April 16 honoring Sheryl Lee Ralph for a television career that began in 1978 and continues today with “Abbott Elementary.” Series star and creator Quinta Brunson and Loretta Devine, a castmate of Ralph’s in the 1981-85 Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” were set to join Ralph in speaking at the ceremony at 6623 Hollywood Blvd., near Musso & Frank Grill.
The star is the 2,808th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars. The ceremony was held the same day as the fourth-season finale of “Abbott Elementary” aired on ABC. Ralph won an outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series Emmy for her portrayal of kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on “Abbott Elementary” and was nominated in the category each of the next two seasons.
Her television career began in 1978 with an uncredited appearance on the NBC World War II drama “Black Sheep Squadron.” Her first credited television role was as a nurse on the short-lived ABC comedy “A.E.S. Hudson Street,” later in 1978. Ralph’s other early television credits include “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times” and “Wonder Woman.”
Ralph’s first series as a cast member was the NBC daytime drama “Search For Tomorrow” in 1983. The first prime-time series to feature Ralph in the cast was the NBC action-adventure series “Code Name: Foxfire,” which ran for five episodes in 1985. Ralph was a cast member of the syndicated comedy “It’s a Living” from 1986-89, the 1990 ABC comedy “New Attitude” and the 2013-15 Nickelodeon and TV Land comedy “Instant Mom.”
Ralph played the wife of boxer turned after-school program director George Foster (George Foreman) on the ABC comedy “George,” which ran for nine episodes in the 1993-94 season. Ralph’s best-known television role before “Abbott Elementary” was the mother of the title character (Brandy Norwood) in the 1996-2001 UPN comedy “Moesha.”
Ralph had recurring roles on the CBS comedy “Designing Women” in the1992-93 season, the Showtime crime drama, “Ray Donovan” from 2013-14 and 2019-20, the Prime Video comedy “One Mississippi” in 2017 and the Freeform supernatural drama “Motherland: Fort Salem” from 2020-22. Her other television credits include “ER,” “L.A. Law” and “Falcon Crest.”
Ralph received a best actress in a musical Tony nomination in 1982 for her portrayal of Deena Jones, a member of a Black girl group from Chicago. Her other Broadway credits include the 2002 revival of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Wicked.” Ralph began her movie career when she was 20 in the 1977 crime comedy “A Piece of the Action,” which starred Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and James Earl Jones and was directed by Poitier. Her other film credits include “The Distinguished Gentleman,” “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” and “The Flintstones.”