Toni Vaz, a display screen veteran who blazed a path as an additional, stunt performer and actress earlier than changing into an activist and founding father of the NAACP Image Awards, has died. She was 101.
A consultant for the Movement Image & Tv Fund confirmed that she handed away on Oct. 4. No reason behind demise was offered. Per the rep, Vaz was “a beloved resident” at MPTF’s Woodland Hills residence.
With roots within the British West Indies and Panama — her dad and mom hailed from Barbados earlier than immigrating to the US — Vaz was certainly one of 4 siblings raised in New York. She moved to Los Angeles from the East Coast within the Fifties to pursue a profession as an actress and stuntwoman, which can have been a shocking profession option to some as her mom didn’t permit her to observe motion pictures till she got here of age. The leap of religion paid off with an early position as an additional in Joseph M. Newman’s Tarzan, the Ape Man for MGM. Launched in 1959, the movie featured Vaz in a scene reverse the studio’s Leo the Lion.
With a credit score below her belt, Vaz moved on to Arnold Laven’s Anna Lucasta, starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr., and Henry Koster’s The Singing Nun. She segued into extra stunt work as one of many first Black girls to dive headfirst into the career. She doubled for legendary Cicely Tyson on the Mission: Inconceivable TV sequence and went on to look in additional than 50 movies and TV exhibits in a profession that discovered her touring the world and captured on movie dangling from helicopters and different spectacular feats.
In a 2019 profile printed by The Hollywood Reporter, Vaz advised reporter Rebecca Ford that she felt pigeonholed. “In those days, the jobs Black people got were playing maids, hookers, Aunt Jemimas,” she mentioned. “That upset me.” However somewhat than stew in anger, she joined the NAACP’s new Hollywood department (with headquarters in Beverly Hills at the time) and got here up with an concept to create an occasion that will elevate the picture of Black performers on the town. “We can play attorneys and doctors. So I thought, why don’t we change that image?” she mentioned.
The primary NAACP Image Awards went down in 1967 from contained in the Beverly Hilton’s Worldwide Ballroom. “The mayor came. It was amazing,” recalled Vaz, who as soon as ran her personal modeling company for ladies of colour. She booked “Immie Girls” as fashions to work the ceremony. The awards present, which continues to at the present time, celebrates the accomplishments of individuals of colour in media and leisure and honors those that promote social justice by their work.
Nevertheless, controversy adopted. For years, Vaz mentioned she didn’t get correct recognition for creating the star-studded occasion. Varied experiences credited totally different names for founding the present, from Maggie Hathaway to Davis Jr., so Vaz spent years making an attempt to appropriate the report, as beforehand reported by THR. “I had a list of all of the people I used to write certified letters to, and nobody would ever answer me,” she recalled. “Never.”
The report was rectified in 2000. Vaz obtained an Image Award trophy of her personal, an honor doled out together with a particular tribute to honor her efforts. She additionally was a visitor of honor at the March 2019 telecast, throughout which host Anthony Anderson known as her a outstanding lady when introducing her to the gang, which responded with a standing ovation. “Every time I used to see that show, for years, it used to bother me inside. But I feel good. I feel good now,” she mentioned.
Extra not too long ago, Vaz was featured in MPTF’s Reel Tales, Actual Lives sequence with a phase delivered by NAACP Image Award winner Angela Bassett. She appeared within the MPTF’s a centesimal anniversary promotional marketing campaign throughout Los Angeles. She had honors on the horizon: Vaz was accepted to be feted with a star on Hollywood’s Stroll of Fame in 2025. It’s unclear if she’s going to obtain the consideration posthumously.
Vaz is survived by nephew Errol Reed and niece Janice Powell-Bowen.
