Shirley Jo Finney, theater director, ‘Wilma’ star, dead at 74

Shirley Jo Finney, a theater director and actress who portrayed Olympic gold medal sprinter Wilma Rudolph in the 1977 television movie “Wilma,” died Tuesday. She was 74.

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Finney died after an eight-month battle with cancer, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Fountain Theatre announced the news of Finney’s death in a statement on Friday, according to Variety.

“It shatters my heart beyond expression to announce the passing of my artistic sister,” Stephen Sachs, artistic director of the Fountain Theatre, said in the statement. “I am deeply, deeply devastated. She was my theatrical soulmate for 26 years.”

Finney directed works at some of the most respected regional theaters in the U.S., according to the Times. The venues included the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Humana Festival at the Actors Theater of Louisville.

She was honored with Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Ovation and NAACP awards for directing “The Ballad of Emmett Till,” according to the newspaper.

Finney also won the International Black Filmmakers Award for her short film “Remember Me,” the Times reported.

Noted mostly for her work in theater, Finney made appearances as a television actress on “Hill Street Blues” and “Lou Grant,” according to IMDb.com. She also directed several episodes of the sitcom “Moesha,” the Times reported.

In “Wilma,” Finney played the groundbreaking Olympic track legend, starring with Cicely Tyson and Denzel Washington.

She was born on July 14, 1949, in Merced, California, according to the Times. Finney earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA and was an artist-in-residence at several universities and colleges, including UCLA, the University of Southern California, Columbia College in Chicago and the University of California, Santa Barbara, the newspaper reported.

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