A biography for Leslie Uggamshasn’t been written yet.
“Oh, I love Lady Gaga - I think she's so fascinating.”
“Because our daughter Danielle never let us know she wanted to sing until she was in college so we weren't tested being stage parents. We were just tested being parents.”
“My husband and I were having dinner with my son and I said to him, 'I'm going to be doing this movie called 'Deadpool.' He went, 'What? 'Deadpool!' Mom! Oh my God! That's incredible!' I then thought that this must be a big time comic book. Then I said, 'Whoa! This is great!'”
“I was a ham. I loved singing and performing.”
“I didn't grow up with money.”
“I was very happy to say that I played the Apollo with some of the greats.”
“I'm all over YouTube.”
“A lot of my actor friends say 'You know what? If I ever come back in another life I'm coming back as an athlete or a rapper - because they get all the acting roles.' When I grew up actors acted and singers sang and dancers danced.”
“I remember how we used to sing on the stoop, and this person I guess she didn't like music would pour cold water on us from the upper floors.”
“I started off working with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington at 9. Then on to working with Elvis and Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis and Dean Martin. People like that. Then I got into theater and worked with Richard Kiley, James Earl Jones. Just extraordinary people.”
“You know, when you are doing a musical you have no life - you are doing eight shows a week, so you can't be hanging out and talking a lot. If you are really dedicated, you live like a nun - and it's really, really hard.”
“I've never been one for idle hands. Totie Fields introduced me to needlepoint when we worked together in Vegas. My first pillow was a field of flowers. I keep it with other pillows I've done. But then I got obsessive about it. It got to the point where my husband said, 'I think we have enough pillows, honey.'”
“I'm very enthusiastic about new music, old music - whatever.”
“I grew up, you had to be the best. And then you'd go that extra mile.”
“TV is more the director's medium. You can be edited right out.”
“My first play was 'Hallelujah, Baby!'”
“I prepare for my craft so that when opportunities come, I can deliver something hopefully even more interesting than the writer had on the page.”
“I always like to reinvent myself. I don't like to repeat the same ol' same ol'.”
“Blues and jazz is our American music.”
“Since I turned 18, I have never missed a vote for president. If you don't vote, you don't get the right to complain.”