Lonette McKee

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Lonette McKee was born in Detroit in 1954, the second of three daughters of Dorothy McKee, of Swedish descent, and Lonnie McKee, an African American bricklayer who also worked in the auto industry. Her career began in the Detroit music scene when she was a child: from the age of seven she was writing songs, singing and playing keyboards, and with her mother's help she performed at record hops, dances and small nightclubs around her hometown. In 1968, at fourteen, she made her first record. Film stardom came with Sparkle (1976), in which she played the doomed singer Sister in a story of three sisters forming a Motown-style girl group. She went on to The Cotton Club, Round Midnight, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X, often in Spike Lee's films. In 1983 she became the first African American actress to play Julie in a Broadway Show Boat, earning a Tony nomination. She has continued to record her own music.

Highlights

1. Sister in Sparkle (1976)
2. Tony nomination as Julie in Show Boat (1983), the first African American in the role
3. Roles in The Cotton Club, Round Midnight, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X
4. Performed at Detroit record hops and clubs from age seven; first record at 14 (1968)