About Nina Mae McKinney: Salary, Height, Measurements, Relationship



Known for movies



Nina Mae McKinney was born in 1913 in South Carolina, the first child of James and Eliza McKinney. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a domestic worker. Nina Mae had four brothers and sisters. She attended a one-room schoolhouse for her primary education. When she was eleven years old, she moved to New York City to live with her aunt. In New York, she attended the High School of Music & Art.

Nina Mae began her career as a dancer in the Cotton Club revue. She went on to star in several Broadway musicals, including Blackbirds of 1928 and Shuffle Along. In 1930, she made her film debut in the all-black cast movie, Hallelujah!. Nina Mae’s breakout role came in 1932, when she starred in the Oscar-nominated film, The Green Pastures. She was one of the first black actresses to achieve mainstream success in Hollywood.

During the 1930s, Nina Mae appeared in several more films, including Emperor Jones and She Done Him Wrong. She also toured Europe with the all-black revue, Blackbirds of 1930. In 1934, she married bandleader Kenneth Spencer. The couple had one child together before divorcing in 1940.

Nina Mae’s career began to decline in the 1940s. She appeared in only a handful of films during this decade. In 1950, she starred in the short-lived television series, The Nina Mae McKinney Show. During the 1950s and 1960s, she mostly worked as a nightclub singer.

Nina Mae McKinney died of a heart attack in 1967 at the age of 54.

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia