Irma P. Hall, the award-winning actress best known as Big Mama Joe in Soul Food, has died at 91. Her family said she died Tuesday, Nov. 10, in Dallas, surrounded by loved ones. No cause of death was given.
Hall was also a longtime member and Church Mother at Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas. Her family said she read to children at the church's school and took part in its theater ministry.
Senior Pastor Rickie G. Rush said Hall once told him, "One day, you will be my pastor." He first heard it when he was 14. In a tribute reported by WFAA, he said she "has taken her final bow on the stage of life and stepped into eternity."
Born in Beaumont, Texas, and raised in Chicago, Hall worked as a teacher before her acting career took off. She won an NAACP Image Award for Soul Food in 1998 and earned a Jury Prize at Cannes for playing a churchgoing landlady in the Coen brothers' 2004 film The Ladykillers. Her other credits include A Family Thing and Touched by an Angel.
She also helped found the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre. Her daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, said her mother began as a classroom teacher and became a teacher to the world.
Hall is survived by her daughter. The family has asked for privacy, and funeral arrangements will be announced later.
For many fans, "Big Mama" gathered her family around the Sunday table on screen, and she gathered people together at church in real life.
