Shirley Jo Finney (July 14, 1949) is an American Actor, and award winning director who appeared as the first Nurse to take care of Mindy when she is admitted into a children's ward in hospital, when the hospital suffers from overcrowding in Season 2's Mork's Health Hints.
Biography[]
Shirley Jo Finney was born on July 14, 1949 in Merced, California, USA as Shirley Joan Finney.
She underwent her Education and Training at Lifetime Community College (Teaching) State of California (1971), Before undertaking an MFA at UCLA (1971-73), and the American Film Institute (1989 - 1991).
She is an alumnus of the American Film Institute’s Director Workshop for Women. She is also a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Director’s Guild, and the Screen Actor’s Guild. She has also been an Artist in Residence at several colleges and universities including Columbia College in Chicago, UCSB, USC and UCLA.
She was honored with the UCLA Department of Stage Film and Television Distinguished Alumni Award, The Black Alumni Associations Dr. Beverly Robinson Award for Excellence in the Arts, and The African American Film Marketplace Award of Achievement for Outstanding Performance and Achievement and leader in Entertainment.
Career[]
Shirley Jo Finney is an accomplished actress with many television and film credits to her name. Her first screen credit came in the medical drama The New Temperatures Rising Show (1973), kickstarting appearances in many well known shows of the day including Police Woman, Lou Grant, Hill Street Blues, and Night Court. However she is best known for her portrayal of Wilma Rudolph, the first female 3-time gold medalist in the made-for-TV bio picture Wilma (1977). [1] [2]
Filmography[]
| Year | TV Series | Episode(s) | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | The New Temperatures Rising Show | The Physical | |
| 1973-1974 | Police Story | Collision Course
Captain Hook |
Officer
Maud |
| 1974 | Police Woman | Seven Eleven | Hestor Roper |
| 1976 | The Blue Knight | Upward Mobility | Hooker |
| 1978-1981 | Lou Grant | Hero
Generations |
Pat
Donna |
| 1979 | Mork & Mindy | Mork's Health Hints | Nurse #1 |
| 1980 | Tenspeed and Brown Shoe | The Robin Tucker's Roseland Roof and Ballroom Murder | Susan |
| 1985 | Hill Street Blues | Somewhere Over the Rambo
Oh, You Kid An Oy for an Oy |
Lynnetta |
| 1987 | Amen | Betting on the Boy | Ms. Rollins |
| 1989 | Night Court | Yet Another Day in the Life | Mrs. Williams |
| 1989-1992 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | 15 and Getting Straight
Different Worlds: A Story of Interracial Love |
Mrs. Jackson |
| 1993 | Where I Live | I Am Not a Role Model | Teacher |
| Year | Movie | Role | |
| 1976 | Nashville Girl | Frisky | |
| 1976 | The River Niger | Gail | |
| 1982 | Hey Good Lookin' | Chaplin (voice) | |
| 1985 | Echo Park | Gloria | |
| 1987 | Nuts | Correction Officer #2 | |
| 1988 | Moving | Jr. High Secretary | |
| 1989 | One Man Force | Hazel | |
| Year | TV Movie | Role | |
| 1977 | Wilma | Wilma Rudolph | |
| 1981 | Thornwell | Lt. Stone | |
| 1987 | Uncle Tom's Cabin | Aunt Chloe | |
| 1990 | Laker Girls | ||
In the 1990s Ms Finney moved into directing and teaching. She has directed several episodes of “Moesha and she garnered the International film award for her short film “Remember Me”.[2]
She has directed in some of the most respected regional theater houses across the country: including The McCarter Theater, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Cleveland Playhouse, the Fountain Theater, LA Theater Works, the Crossroads Theater Company, Actors Theater of Louisville Humana Festival, the Sundance Theater Workshop, The Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the State Theater in Pretoria, South Africa.
Her awards include the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award, The Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, LA Weekly Award, The NAACP and the Santa Barbara Independent awards for her directing work. Miss Finney also helmed the acclaimed International all South African Opera entitled “Winnie” based on the life of political icon Winnie Mandela.
She directed and developed the critically acclaimed World premiere of Citizen: An American Lyric by the award winning PENN poet Claudia Rankin. Other recent works include Facing Our Truth, The Trayvon Martin Project at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, the Lark Foundations rolling world premier of The Road Weeps by Marcus Gardley at the Los Angeles Theater Center and Tarell McCraney’s Brother/Sisters Plays.[2]
Mork & Mindy[]
Shirley Jo featured as the good natured if hugely overworked nurse who, working three floors alone, comes to pick up Mindy to take her for her blood tests, explaining why she's in the Children's Ward to have her tonsils out, with the place so overcrowded. Finding Mork there to visit Mindy, his offbeat behavior, makes her think she knows what ward he's wandered in from, before Mindy assures her he's only visiting. Telling him he'd better get underway as visiting hours are almost over, she wheels Mindy out for her tests. The fact she's not on duty the next day, part of the reason of the chaos to follow.
Note: She and fellow Nurse from the episode, Barbara Cason, both appeared in the same episode of The New Temperature Rising Show (The Physical)