1. Danitra Vance was an American comedian and actress who was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live during its eleventh season in 1985.
17 Facts About Danitra Vance
1. 2.
Danitra Vance appeared in feature films like Sticky Fingers, Limit Up, and Jumpin' at the Boneyard.
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In 1990, Danitra Vance was diagnosed with breast cancer, and performed several works through remission and recurrence until her death in 1994.
4.
Danitra Vance later attended National College of Education before transferring to Roosevelt University in 1975, where she studied playwriting and acting, and graduated with honors.
5.
Danitra Vance then moved to London to study at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was classically trained in Shakespeare and earned a MFA.
6.
Danitra Vance started her career performing with The Second City improv group before moving to New York City in 1981 with goals of performing only to face direct discrimination and return to the Midwest to teach high school in Gary, Indiana, where her students helped inspire characters in her next show.
7.
Danitra Vance initially performed the characters in Old Town, Chicago.
8.
Danitra Vance's casting alongside Terry Sweeney was the first time that Saturday Night Live had two gay cast members.
9.
Danitra Vance joined the SNL cast during a time of great transition and turbulence for the show, and she became frustrated over repeatedly having characters stereotypical of young Black women written for her.
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Danitra Vance was ultimately let go by SNL at the end of the 1986 season, along with many other cast members, including Sweeney, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr.
11.
Danitra Vance was awarded an NAACP Image Award in 1986 and later won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance in the theatrical adaptation of Spunk, a collection of short stories written by Zora Neale Hurston.
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That same year, Vance was in the original cast of George C Wolfe's The Colored Museum; she would go on to reprise some of her performances therein for a 1991 Great Performances restaging of the play.
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Danitra Vance was the second female lead, opposite Nancy Allen, in Limit Up, in which she played Nike, a guardian angel on assignment for God.
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Danitra Vance had small roles in The War of the Roses and Little Man Tate and a more significant role in Jumpin' at the Boneyard, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female at the 8th Independent Spirit Awards.
15.
Danitra Vance expanded on her experiences in a second autobiographical show, titled Pre-Shrunk, which was to be performed at The Public Theater.
16.
Danitra Vance died of the disease the following year in Markham, Illinois, with her age incorrectly cited as 35.
17.
Danitra Vance requested her funeral be held at an amusement park, and her family threw her a "going-away party" with apple bobbing and bean bag tossing to respect her wishes.