Beverly Hope Atkinson (December 9, 1935 â€" December 11, 2001) was an
American stage, film, and television actress from 1968 until 1991,
known for her work playing women down-on-their-luck or caught up in
drug addiction.Atkinson studied under Lee Strasberg in the 1960s and
later became a member of the Actors Studio. After attending City
College of New York, she began her career on the New York stage with
the Café LaMama Theater troupe and Theater West in Los Angeles,
touring in such productions as The Skin of Our Teeth, Lysistrata and
The Blacks.Atkinson relocated to Hollywood in the early 1970s. She
impressed in her very first film role as a streetwise hooker in The
New Centurions (1972) with George C. Scott. She had a role in the 1973
animated drama film Heavy Traffic as a black bartender named Carole
who enters into a relationship with the struggling white cartoonist
son of a Mafioso. The film features live-action segments in which
Atkinson also played her live-action counterpart, in addition to
voicing the animated character. She began her television career with
minor roles, but found steadier work as her character career continued
in the same flashy vein, playing angry women down-on-their-luck or
whose lives were caught in drugs and addiction, most notably in a
recurring role on Hill Street Blues from 1984 to 1986.
American stage, film, and television actress from 1968 until 1991,
known for her work playing women down-on-their-luck or caught up in
drug addiction.Atkinson studied under Lee Strasberg in the 1960s and
later became a member of the Actors Studio. After attending City
College of New York, she began her career on the New York stage with
the Café LaMama Theater troupe and Theater West in Los Angeles,
touring in such productions as The Skin of Our Teeth, Lysistrata and
The Blacks.Atkinson relocated to Hollywood in the early 1970s. She
impressed in her very first film role as a streetwise hooker in The
New Centurions (1972) with George C. Scott. She had a role in the 1973
animated drama film Heavy Traffic as a black bartender named Carole
who enters into a relationship with the struggling white cartoonist
son of a Mafioso. The film features live-action segments in which
Atkinson also played her live-action counterpart, in addition to
voicing the animated character. She began her television career with
minor roles, but found steadier work as her character career continued
in the same flashy vein, playing angry women down-on-their-luck or
whose lives were caught in drugs and addiction, most notably in a
recurring role on Hill Street Blues from 1984 to 1986.
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