Ale Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Published: February 13, 2009 Republished from 2005 profiles She was an interior design and architecture major at Northwestern University who became a model who became an actress who wound up as director of operations for the movie studio she launched with her husband. Daphne Maxwell Reid started New Millennium Studios, a movie production facility in Petersburg, with her husband, actor/filmmaker Tim Reid, in 1997. But before that, Maxwell Reid had starred in numerous TV series, many of them with her husband. In "Frank's Place" (1987-88, CBS), a half-hour "dramedy" created by Reid and set in New Orleans, she played a beautiful mortician. In "Snoops" (1989-1990, CBS) she was the wife half of a husband-and-wife team of crime solvers, making her the first black woman to star in an hourlong drama since Teresa Graves in "Get Christie Love" in the mid-1970s. Tim Reid played the husband. In 1990, the couple also tried their hand at a syndicated talk show in "The Tim and Daphne Show" for King World. She played the worldly Eartha in Showtime's "Linc's," one of the first TV projects to come out of New Millennium studios. She's been featured in two movies directed by her husband, "Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored" and "Asunder." Listeners to public radio in central Virginia know her voice from the lively "Art on the Air" segments she narrates. But Maxwell Reid may be best known for her role as Aunt Viv on NBC's hit comedy "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," which starred Will Smith and not Tim Reid. Born and raised in Manhattan's West Side, Maxwell Reid graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, where she was senior class president and Merit Scholarship recipient. While she was in college, one of her high school teachers sent a picture of Maxwell Reid to a magazine. That led to a photograph in Seventeen magazine, quickly followed by signing with the Eileen Ford Agency. Maxwell Reid would become the first black woman on the cover of Glamour magazine. The Reids met more than 30 years ago when both were doing a commercial in Chicago. Reportedly, she wasn't impressed. Ten years later, they met again, and in December 1982, they married - with a goal of finding projects that would keep them together. In 1997, that goal helped lead to the creation of New Millennium Studios. In an interview that year, Maxwell Reid said her role as director of operations was to be a partner to her husband. "He's an incredible movie maker, an incredible storyteller, an incredible businessman. I have strengths that help him facilitate the things he wants to do. "He just needs to dream the big picture. I'll take care of the details. I'm a very analytical person. My strengths lie in contracts, moneys, operations. "I think the focus should be on Tim," she said. "Yes I'm a partner, but I don't have to be a vocal one. I don't have any ego problem with that." Her ability to take care of the details has earned her the nickname of "Mama Millennium" at the studio. Maxwell Reid has also put her interests in design to use, creating most of her own wardrobe. In 1992, she entered into a co-venture with the McCall Pattern Company, producing and starring in a video-and-pattern series, "Suddenly You're Sewing." http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/spec...ll_reid/206113/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romano338 Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Great actress in FPOBA, but I prefer the first Aunt Viv : more funny, role more developed,... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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