African American actress Juanita Moore entered films in the early 50's, a time in which few black people were ever given an opportunity to act with major studio films. Fortunately Moore's roles began improving as Hollywood developed a social consciousness toward the end of the decade. In 1959 she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Imitation of Life (1959), a glossy updating of a once controversial Fannie Hurst novel about racism. Within the next decade Hollywood underwent several sociological upheavals, and Juanita Moore was one of the beneficiaries. She became a fixture of such black oriented films of the 70's as Up Tight! (1969), Thomasine and Bushrod (1974) and Abby (1974). She recently appeared in Disney's The Kid (2000). Moore is semi retired. She has also been in over 30 other motion pictures.