Lee Chamberlin

Lee Chamberlin was a TV, theater and film actress whose credits include the 1970s PBS children’s series The Electric Company.

An original cast member of The Electric Company, Chamberlin joined performers including Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno in using skits, parodies and songs to teach elementary school students about grammar and vocabulary. While on the show, Chamberlin played roles including Brenda, Vi and Madam Rosalie and sang duets with actor Morgan Freeman.

After the show’s second season, Chamberlin transitioned into theater by acting in Shakespeare plays. Among others, she landed the role of Cordelia opposite James Earl Jones in a 1976 production of King Lear at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

She also continued her work on the silver screen as Pat Baxter on the ABC soap opera All My Children and shows including Diff’rent Strokes, What’s Happening! and N.Y.P.D. Blue.

In addition to her work in plays and television shows, Chamberlin appeared in movies including Uptown Saturday Night and Let’s Do It Again.

Born Alverta La Pallo in Upper Manhattan, Chamberlin was a New York University graduate who changed her name for her acting career. One of her earliest roles was in the 1970 Off Broadway production of Slave Ship by the poet and dramatist Amiri Baraka.

A theater veteran and enthusiast, Chamberlin founded the Playwrights’ Inn Project in Paris in 2010 to help African-American playwrights foster their work.

Chamberlin died on May 25, 2014, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was 76.