Why Oprah Winfrey Handpicked Lynn Whitfield For Greenleaf & What Happened After

One of the most underrated, yet one of the greatest black American actresses of all time is Lynn Whitfield (pictured).

Her illustrious career in film has an allure about it that is quite intriguing. Whitfield, 63, comes from a well-to-do family and is a third-generation BFA graduate from Howard University. She’s won an Emmy Award and was also nominated for a Golden Globe. Whitfield is a cultured woman of black and native descent and she’s very versatile in her movie roles. In a recent interview with Black Enterprise Magazine, Whitfield talked about her experiences as one of the few A-list black actresses who have successfully maintained relevance and longevity.

“If my characters are not complicated, I make them complicated,” Whitfield told Gwendolyn Quinn, a Black Enterprise correspondent. “Complex people are far more interesting to play,” she continued.

Whitfield has played her fair share of complex personalities. She starred as the legendary Josephine Baker in the 1991 HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story. In this role (which she won her Emmy for), Whitfield showed her creative versatility and the depth of her work ethic in full force.

In the biopic, Whitfield played Baker from the time she was 18 to 68-years-old. The film makers didn’t even need a separate actress to…

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