Madge Sinclair married young, and had two sons. She worked as a teacher in Jamaica until she was 30. Madge left her two boys with their father and went to New York to be an actress. She began modelling and later acted with the New York Shakespearean Festival and at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. In 1974 Madge made her film debut in 1974, playing Mrs. Scott in Conrack. Madge was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Belle in the miniseries _"Roots" (1977)_ . In the early 1980s, shortly after joining the cast of Trapper John, M.D. she was diagnosed with leukaemia. She continued to work outliving the doctors' predictions by several years. On December 20, 1995, at the age of 57, Madge Sinclair died in Los Angeles.



Her appearance as the unnamed captain of the U.S.S. Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) marked the first appearance, in any Star Trek show or movie, of a female starship captain. Co-starred with James Earl Jones five times. Madge was cast as a relative of characters played by 'Ben Vereen' and 'LeVar Burton' in two different productions. In "Roots" (1977), she played Bell, Kunta Kinte's wife and Chicken George's grandmother. Kunta Kinte as a youth was played by LeVar Burton. Kunta Kinte as an adult married to Bell was played by John Amos. Chicken George was played by Ben Vereen. In "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Interface (#7.3)" (1993), Madge played Capt. Silvia LaForge, mother of Geordi LaForge, played by Burton, and wife of Commander Edward M. LaForge, M.D., played by Vereen.