Viola Davis Biography

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Viola Davis built an exceptional background in theater productions and has continued to perform on-stage throughout her television and film career. Making her feature-film debut in 1996 as a nurse in The Substance of Fire, she followed that up with several TV movies and guest-star appearances on dramatic series like Law & Order and NYPD Blue. She went on to play another nurse in City of Angels, a hospital drama with a predominately African-American cast that didn't last long on CBS. She began collaborating with Steven Soderbergh for Out of Sight, and went on to star in two of the director's next few films, Traffic and Solaris. In 2001, she appeared in Kate and Leopold and in Oprah Winfrey's television presentation of Amy & Isabelle. The next year she played parts in both Far From Heaven and Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher.Davis continued to work steadily in a variety of notable projects including Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, Syriana, and played a notable part in the television movie biopic of American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino. However, in 2008 she landed the small but crucial role of the mother in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award-winning play Doubt. Although her screen time is minimal, her indelible performance garnered her Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. Davis became a well known entity almost instantly, and was soon filling her docket with projects like 2009's State of Play, 2010's Knight and Day and Eat Pray Love, and an arc on the series United States of Tara.Davis next appeared in the box office hit 2011 big screen adaptation of Kathryn Sockett 's period novel The Help, garnering still more praise as well as Best Actress nominations from the Academy, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild. Her performance was still making waves when the critics began lauding her agian, this time for her role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that same year. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

• 1. Amma: Close your eyes, say with your mind what you're lookin' for as if you've already found it.
  From Beautiful Creatures. Submitted by Alyssa B (15 days ago)

• 1. Amma: God gives us what we can handle, even if we don't believe it ourselves.
  From Beautiful Creatures. Submitted by April C (3 months ago)

• 1. Nona Alberts: Dare to think!
  From Won't Back Down. Submitted by Emmet S (4 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: I didn't steal no silver.
  2. Hilly Holbrook: Maybe I can't send you to jail for what you wrote but I can send you for bein' a thief!
  3. Aibileen Clark: I know somethin' about you, don't you forget that! From what Yule Mae says, there's a lot a time to write letters in jail. Plenty of time to write the truth about you. And the paper is free.
  From The Help. Submitted by Alyssa B (4 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: [to Hilly] All you do is scare and lie to try and get what you want. You're a godless woman. Ain't you tired, Miss Hilly? Ain't you tired?
  From The Help. Submitted by John Paul G (6 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: I didn't steal no silver.
  2. Hilly Holbrook: Maybe I can't send you to jail for what you wrote but I can send you for being a thief!
  3. Aibileen Clark: I know something about you, don't you forget that! From what Yule Mae says, there's a lot of time to write letters in jail. Plenty of time to write the truth about you. And the paper is free.
  From The Help. Submitted by John Paul G (6 months ago)

• 1. Minny Jackson: Forgive me, Lord, but I have to kill that woman, Aibileen. Now, she gone to putting pencil marks on my toilet paper.
  2. Aibileen Clark: Did she?
  3. Minny Jackson: But I carry paper in from my own damn house. That fool don't know.
  4. Aibileen Clark: Miss Leefolt got so much hairspray on her head she gonna blow us all up if she light a cigarette.
  5. Minny Jackson: And you know she will!
  From The Help. Submitted by John Paul G (6 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: Hey Minny.
  2. Minny Jackson: Hey Aiblienen.
  3. Yule Mae Davis: Hey Minny.
  4. Minny Jackson: Hmmmmm.
  From The Help. Submitted by nisha a (6 months ago)

• 1. Nona Alberts: What are you gonna do with your one and only life?
  From Won't Back Down. Submitted by Chris P (8 months ago)

• 1. Gail Friedman: People get hurt. There's only so much we can do to protect ourselves, our children. The only thing we can do is be there for each other when we do fall down to pick each other up.
  From Trust. Submitted by Nusfish K (15 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen: No one had ever asked me, what it felt like to be me. Once I told the truth about that, I felt free.
  From The Help. Submitted by Raj G (16 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen: God says we need to love our enemies. It's hard to do, but it can start by telling the truth.
  From The Help. Submitted by Raj G (16 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen: Minny, we're rich!
  From The Help. Submitted by Raj G (16 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: [talking to Skeeter] We... are... alive...
  From The Help. Submitted by Alyssa B (17 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: I ain't never had no white person in my house before.
  From The Help. Submitted by Alyssa B (17 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: Ms. Leefolt should not be havin' babies. Put that in the book.
  From The Help. Submitted by Alyssa B (17 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen: 18 people were killed in Jackson that night. 10 white and 8 black. I don't think God has color in mind when he sets a tornado loose
  From The Help. Submitted by Alyssa B (18 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: Miss Myrna get it wrong a lot of times, it'd be good to get it right.
  From The Help. Submitted by Tracy M (20 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: I thought I might write my stories down or read 'em to you. Ain't no different in writin' down my prayers.
  From The Help. Submitted by Tracy M (20 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen: You is kind. You is smart. You is important.
  From The Help. Submitted by Melanie W (21 months ago)

• 1. Aibileen Clark: You are a godless women.
  From The Help. Submitted by Megan O (23 months ago)

• 1. Mrs. Miller: It's something in the child's nature.
  2. Sister Aloysius Beauvier: I was married, and he died in Italy.
  From Doubt. Submitted by Faith C (23 months ago)