Toni Vaz, a display screen veteran who blazed a path as an additional, stunt performer and actress earlier than turning into an activist and founding father of the NAACP Picture Awards, has died. She was 101.
A consultant for the Movement Image & Tv Fund confirmed that she handed away on Oct. 4. No explanation for loss of life was supplied. Per the rep, Vaz was “a beloved resident” at MPTF’s Woodland Hills residence.
With roots within the British West Indies and Panama — her dad and mom hailed from Barbados earlier than immigrating to america — Vaz was certainly one of 4 siblings raised in New York. She moved to Los Angeles from the East Coast within the Fifties to pursue a profession as an actress and stuntwoman, which can have been a shocking profession option to some as her mom didn’t enable her to observe motion pictures till she got here of age. The leap of religion paid off with an early function as an additional in Joseph M. Newman’s Tarzan, the Ape Man for MGM. Launched in 1959, the movie featured Vaz in a scene reverse the studio’s Leo the Lion.
With a credit score beneath her belt, Vaz moved on to Arnold Laven’s Anna Lucasta, starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr., and Henry Koster’s The Singing Nun. She segued into extra stunt work as one of many first Black girls to dive headfirst into the occupation. She doubled for legendary Cicely Tyson on the Mission: Unimaginable TV collection and went on to seem in additional than 50 movies and TV reveals in a profession that discovered her touring the world and captured on movie dangling from helicopters and different spectacular feats.
In a 2019 profile revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Vaz informed reporter Rebecca Ford that she felt pigeonholed. “In these days, the roles Black folks bought had been enjoying maids, hookers, Aunt Jemimas,” she stated. “That upset me.” However moderately than stew in anger, she joined the NAACP’s new Hollywood department (with headquarters in Beverly Hills on the time) and got here up with an thought to create an occasion that will elevate the picture of Black performers on the town. “We are able to play attorneys and medical doctors. So I believed, why don’t we modify that picture?” she stated.
The primary NAACP Picture Awards went down in 1967 from contained in the Beverly Hilton’s Worldwide Ballroom. “The mayor got here. It was superb,” recalled Vaz, who as soon as ran her personal modeling company for ladies of shade. She booked “Immie Women” as fashions to work the ceremony. The awards present, which continues to today, celebrates the accomplishments of individuals of shade in media and leisure and honors those that promote social justice by their work.
Nonetheless, controversy adopted. For years, Vaz stated she didn’t get correct recognition for creating the star-studded occasion. Varied studies credited totally different names for founding the present, from Maggie Hathaway to Davis Jr., so Vaz spent years attempting to right the document, as beforehand reported by THR. “I had a listing of all the folks I used to jot down licensed letters to, and no person would ever reply me,” she recalled. “By no means.”
The document was rectified in 2000. Vaz acquired an Picture Award trophy of her personal, an honor doled out together with a particular tribute to honor her efforts. She additionally was a visitor of honor on the March 2019 telecast, throughout which host Anthony Anderson known as her a outstanding girl when introducing her to the gang, which responded with a standing ovation. “Each time I used to see that present, for years, it used to hassle me inside. However I really feel good. I really feel good now,” she stated.
Extra just lately, Vaz was featured in MPTF’s Reel Tales, Actual Lives collection with a phase delivered by NAACP Picture Award winner Angela Bassett. She appeared within the MPTF’s a centesimal anniversary promotional marketing campaign throughout Los Angeles. She had honors on the horizon: Vaz was authorised to be feted with a star on Hollywood’s Stroll of Fame in 2025. It’s unclear if she’s going to obtain the respect posthumously.
Vaz is survived by nephew Errol Reed and niece Janice Powell-Bowen.