A biography for Leslie Uggamshasn’t been written yet.
“I never smoked.”
“Once you become part of the Broadway community, it's really such a family. It's a great environment. It's like a college of great people who are warm and welcoming.”
“My career is so eclectic.”
“A friend of the family thought I had talent, and she used to take me to these little auditions. There were a lot of children's shows when television was young. They had an audition for someone to play the niece to Ethel Waters on 'Beulah' and I got the part.”
“Most of my stuff has been in the theater world.”
“TV is my true love.”
“I respect the gift I was given so I take care of it.”
“I was a pioneer in doing one thing, but it hurt me in another. I would have liked to have had a record career. But I was stuck with Mitch Miller.”
“It's wonderful to get fabulous reviews, certainly. But at the same time, I know some shows that got fabulous reviews and the audience still didn't come.”
“I had an aunt Eloise, my father's sister who was on Broadway in 'The Blackbirds of 1928,' then she did a stint with Ethel Waters and then she was in 'Porgy and Bess' and 'St. Louis Woman,' so she came from the theater world.”
“I hated my name. In those days I thought it was really a boy's name. Now lots of girls are called Leslie and I don't mind it so much.”
“I like exploring and taking risks.”
“We need more Black artists writing, performing, directing, and producing Black stories on the main stage - and not just in February!”
“The audience at the Apollo took no prisoners. They would boo you in a second. It was better than any schooling that I ever had when it came to the arts because you were out on that stage and you had to make it work.”
“I was kind of unique. I wasn't your ordinary girl next door.”
“We used to walk to school, or take the subway. Nobody thought the worst of taking the subways. In fact, you could fall asleep on a train and nobody would bother you. You were always safe.”
“Dinah Washington backstage was gambling, always in a hot poker game, cussing like a sailor - but at the same time she couldn't have been more loving to me. I was like the little girl she never had.”
“You can't just sit around waiting for a good script. You can wait forever.”
“It's great material that I've been able to do, and we have 'Fallout,' which is another one that I'm doing.”
“It's amazing how comforting it is to hear a friend's voice or see a loved one's face on the screen.”