COVER STORY; Della Reese: Earning Her Wings (original) (raw)
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COVER STORY
- June 14, 1998
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June 14, 1998
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Section 13, Page
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As Tess, Roma Downey's down-to-earth, otherworldly boss on ''Touched by an Angel,'' Della Reese has converted millions of viewers in the signature role of her career. But more than acting is involved. Like the brassy but soft-hearted angel she plays on the top-rated CBS drama, Ms. Reese has been heeding the voice of God for most of her life. As the new A&E Biography ''Della Reese: Outspoken Angel'' makes clear, playing Tess is a job she has been preparing for since childhood.
''The Lord has planned my life,'' Ms. Reese said during a recent phone interview, sounding very much like her television alter ego. ''I'm not a great planner but I have been open to what God has in store for me, and it's worked.''
Worked, indeed: ''Touched by an Angel'' has made Ms. Reese a prime-time icon. But the actress has had many other roles, including those of gospel singer, television talk show host and, for the last 12 years, licensed minister. As a teen-ager, she toured with Mahalia Jackson. As a blues soloist working in New York in the 50's, she performed alongside such jazz greats as Dizzie Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan. She made history years before Oprah, moving into television in the late 60's as the first black woman to have her own talk show.
''I've had so many different chapters in my career, so many different audiences, but it always comes back to me talking to God,'' Ms. Reese said. Similar declarations of faith set the tone of tomorrow night's ''Biography,'' as friends and relatives, including her daughter, Deloreese Daniels, her husband and manager, Franklin Lett, and her co-star, Ms. Downey, help create a picture of Ms. Reese's long and varied career.
It is a story not unlike the one she annotates during our phone conversation. Whether she is playing Tess, talking to a reporter or telling her life story for a documentary film, Ms. Reese has her role down pat as a larger than life, devoutly religious but also wickedly witty performer who knows her audience, be it a church congregation or the millions who tune in to her show each week. It's a practiced performance, given the striking similarity of her recollections -- some of her stories in the ''Biography'' segment are identical to the ones she told during an interview -- and one she refuses to question.
''No, my life doesn't seem remarkable to me,'' she said bluntly. ''I assume once I have prayed, the answer is on its way.'' The actress traces her faith to her Depression childhood on Detroit's hardscrabble East Side. Her mother, a full-blooded Cherokee, was a domestic worker, and her father a steelworker and general man about town.
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