L. Scott "Scotty" Caldwell (born Laverne Scott) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Rose Henderson in Lost.
Biography
Born as Laverne Scott, Caldwell grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood, located in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. She was the middle child of four children, born to working-class parents. In her childhood, she attended the morning session at a high-enrollment elementary school, while her older siblings went to school in the afternoon. When the school released her at noontime, Caldwell would be escorted to a neighborhood theater, where she was minded by a friend of her mother's. While attending Hyde Park High School, she joined the drama club. Her class later went to see a performance of A Day of Absence, featuring Douglas Turner Ward, a co-founder of The Negro Ensemble Company, marking the first time Caldwell saw professional African-American actors on stage. After graduating high school in 1967, she attended the Northwestern University, leaving after spending one year there. Caldwell then went to work full-time as an operator at Illinois Bell. In her early twenties, she married John Caldwell and had a son, named Ominara, with him; she would later divorce with John in the early 1980s. She later transferred her credits to Loyola University-Chicago, from which Caldwell earned a Bachelor's Degree in Theater Arts and Communications.
Originally, Caldwell planned on pursuing a teaching career, teaching at Chicago High School of the Performing Arts, also working for the Chicago Council on Fine Arts as an artist-in-residence for one year. While in Chicago, Caldwell performed in local theatrical productions at The Body Politic, Court Theater, and Eleventh Street Theater. She then went to New York sometime in 1978 to audition for Uta Hagen's school HB Studio. While waiting to audition there, she spotted an advertisement for The Negro Ensemble Company, the very company that inspired her. After her audition at Hagen's school, Caldwell took the subway to the NEC, where she was initially rebuffed by the interviewer, but she insisted on meeting with Ward, using the three pieces she performed at her audition for Hagen. She was subsequently accepted by both Hagen and Ward. During her first season at NEC, Caldwell performed in several plays, one of which, called Home, took her to Broadway's Cort Theatre in 1980. The play was critically acclaimed and earned a Tony Award nomination for Charles Brown. After Home was closed, Caldwell worked in several regional theater productions, including Boesman and Lena at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and A Raisin in the Sun at Studio Arena Theatre located in Buffalo, New York. She has since starred in world-premiere and regional productions across the country.
In December 1984, while working in Play of Giants, Caldwell was struck by a car while hailing a cab on Columbus Avenue in New York. As a result, she suffered a severe back injury and was unable to come back to work for nearly two years. Her first audition following her recovery was for Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Her performance as Bertha Holly earned her a 1988 Tony Award. She also appeared off-Broadway in About Heaven & Earth, Colored People's Time, Old Phantoms, A Season to Unravel, The Imprisonment of Obatala, and Going to St. Ives. Soon after winning the 1988 award, Caldwell moved to southern California to extend her career to television and film credits. She then returned to Broadway in 1997, starring as the lead in the short-lived Proposals. After Proposals closed down, Caldwell performed in New York City Center's production of St. Louis Woman. In 2006, she made her Goodman Theatre debut in The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove. In 2011, she took on role of Lena Younger in the Ebony Repertory Theatre production of the Lorraine Hansberry classic A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Phylicia Rashad. Caldwell, along with the entire cast of A Raisin in the Sun, was nominated for the LA Stage Alliance 2011 Ovation Award for her work as Lena, for which she won the 2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Caldwell has acquired film credits that included Waiting to Exhale, The Net, The Fugitive, Like Dandelion Dust, and Powder Blue. In 2010, Caldwell portrayed the lead role in the short film Lisa Trotter, which was directed by Hawthrone James, also from Chicago. Caldwell landed recurring roles on a number of TV series, including Judging Amy, Lost, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Southland. She has also guest-starred in over fifty TV series and made-for-TV films, including JAG, Chicago Hope, City of Angels, and Promised Land. Additional television credits include The Practice, Any Day Now, Murder One, The Pretender, ER, Nip/Tuck, L.A. Law, Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case, Saving Grace, State of Mind, The Cosby Show, and Criminal Minds. In 2003, Caldwell was cast as a series regular in the CBS-produced series Queens Supreme.
In her personal life, Caldwell is an active member of Unite For Strength, the Screen Actors Guild coalition in favor of joining with AFTRA. On September 19, 2008, she won a seat as an alternate on the organization's national board of directors and also the Hollywood division board of directors. Caldwell was also elected to a second one-year term on September 24, 2009. Additionally, Caldwell served on the Seniors, Legislative, Women, Holiday Host, Honors and Tributes, and EEOC committees. In September of 2010, she was elected to another one-year term on the national board of directors. In addition, Caldwell served as the national chair of the Women's Committee. The following year, Caldwell went on the SAG national board of directors ballot for a fourth consecutive year. She went on to win a three-year term on the national and Hollywood boards. She will serve as national chair of Women and Healthcare Safetynet committees. In 2004, Caldwell was married again (on her birthday) to artist, photographer, and director Dasal Banks, who later suffered from cancer and died in May 2005.
Presently, Caldwell gives lectures and appears on panels concerning African-American actors. In 2007, she participated in tributes to August Wilson at Goodman Theatre in conjunction with Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, and at the St. Louis Black Repertory Company. In June 2008, she participated in the NAACP Theatre Awards Festival Actors on Acting panel. In June 2009, Caldwell moderated a panel of actors, directors, and casting directors discussing African-American images in Hollywood. In February 2010, she directed a staged reading of Standing On My Sisters' Shoulders for the Los Angeles chapter of Actors Equity Association.
On Criminal Minds
Caldwell portrayed murder suspect Tina Johnson in the Season Nine episode Strange Fruit.
Filmography
- Criminal Minds - Strange Fruit (2013) TV episode - Tina Johnson
- Low Winter Sun (2013) as Violet Geddes (5 episodes)
- The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008-2013) as Margaret Shakur (32 episodes)
- Southland (2009-2013) as Enid Adams (7 episodes)
- Private Practice (2012) as Jillian McCray
- The Lamp (2011) as Miss Esther
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2011) as Nora Parkes
- Grey's Anatomy (2011) as Allison Cobb
- Lisa Trotter (2010) as Lisa Trotter (short)
- Lost (2004-2010) as Rose Nadler (22 episodes)
- Powder Blue (2009) as Nurse Gomez
- Like Dandelion Dust (2009) as Allyson Bower
- Without a Trace (2007) as Rev. Anna Washington
- Saving Grace (2007) as Dee Reynolds
- State of Mind (2007) as Mrs. Williams
- Queens Supreme (2003-2007) as Judge Rose Barnea (13 episodes)
- Jozi-H (2007) as Dr. Laura Shields
- Ghost Whisperer (2006) as Liz
- Cold Case (2006) as Alice Stallworth
- ER (2004-2006) as Dr. Rabb (2 episodes)
- Gridiron Gang (2006) as Bobbi Porter
- Nip/Tuck (2003) as Dr. Reed
- The Court (2002) as Anne Marie
- Dragonfly (2002) as Head Nurse
- Passions (2001) as Clinic Counselor
- The Practice (2001) as Parole Board Chairperson
- Judging Amy (1999-2000) as Tanya Miller (7 episodes)
- City of Angels (2000) as Angela Patterson (3 episodes)
- Intimate Betrayal (1999) as Det. Sheila Monroe
- Mystery, Alaska (1999) as Judge McGibbons
- Chicago Hope (1999) as Bonnie Medina
- JAG (1999) as Mrs. Flora Springs
- The Last Man on Planet Earth (1999) as Ester, Hope's Professor
- Promised Land (1998) as Jury Forewoman
- Any Day Now (1998) as Mrs. Opal Lee
- Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997) as Sen. Condon
- Murder One (1997) as Anna Mae Brown
- The Pretender (1996) as Gwen Porter
- Twilight Man (1996) as Det. Lou Shannon
- Down Came a Blackbird (1995) as Cerises
- Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) as Hattie May Parsons
- The Net (1995) as Public Defender
- Grace Under Fire (1995) as Carol Briscoe
- Soweto Green: This Is a "Tree" Story (1995) as Cora Tshabalala
- Melrose Place (1994) as Judge Maxine Marco
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993) as Carol Sherman
- The Fugitive (1993) as Poole
- Extreme Justice (1993) as Lieutenant Devlin
- For the Love of My Child: The Anissa Ayala Story (1993) as Rita
- Reasonable Doubts (1993) as Eleanor Gilbert
- The Switch (1993) as Mrs. Linson
- The Heights (1992) as Joanne
- Dutch (1991) as Homeless Woman
- thirtysomething (1991) as Alice
- Equal Justice (1991) as Mrs. Ida Bolton
- Love, Lies and Murder (1991) as Judge Starkey
- Up Against the Wall (1991) as Sandy Wilkes
- Dangerous Passion (1990) as Ruby
- The Outsiders (1990) as Barbra Richards
- Doogie Howser, M.D. (1990) as Mrs. Alexander
- Alien Nation (1989) as Lyddie
- Hunter (1989) as Gloria Tessel
- Tour of Duty (1989) as Selma Binion
- L.A. Law (1989) as Wanda Havens
- TV 101 (1988) as Mrs. Hines
- The Cosby Show (1988) as Elizabeth
- God Bless the Child (1988) as Althea Watkins
- Exterminator 2 (1984) as Patron
- Without a Trace (1983) as Janet Smith
LINKS
For an up-to-date filmography, see here.