Carol Speed was an actress known for roles in films of the blaxploitation era, including “Abby” and “The Mack.”
- Died: January 14, 2022 (Who else died on January 14?)
- Details of death: Died in Muskogee, Oklahoma at the age of 76.
- We invite you to share condolences for Carol Speed in our Guest Book.
Acting career
Speed had early TV success with guest roles on “Julia” and “Sanford and Son,” as well as a recurring role on “Days of Our Lives,” before making her way into movies. She had small roles in “The New Centurions” and “The Big Bird Cage,” then landed a prominent part in 1973’s “The Mack,” starring opposite Max Julien (1933–2022). The following year, Speed starred in “Abby,” playing a woman possessed by a demon. She also had roles in the blaxploitation films “Savage” “The Dynamite Brothers” and “Black Samson.” She largely retired from movies after the mid-1970s but had roles in “Disco Godfather” (1979) and “Village Vengeance” (2006). Speed also wrote books including the novel “Inside Black Hollywood,” and she was a singer and songwriter who performed an original composition in “Abby.”
Notable quote
“My first Hollywood job (1970) was with Bobby Gentry as a backup singer at Harrahs in Reno, Nevada. The morning we were to leave, the Los Angeles International Airport was fogged in. So we waited. Finally, the fog lifted, but there was another flight scheduled to leave. So they bumped some people off of that flight, because we had to be in Reno. When we arrived we were chauffeured in a Rolls Royce to Harrahs. It was my first ride in a Rolls Royce and I enjoyed every minute of it. There was a maid to unpack our clothes … they were waiting for us for rehearsal. I thought, ‘If this is show business, I love it!!!!’” —from an interview for WilliamGirdler.com
Tributes to Carol Speed
Full obituary: Keith D. Biglow Funeral Directors
