Sinclair, Madge
Sinclair in 1988
Acclaimed Jamaican-American actress Madge Sinclair joined son-and-dance icon Ben Vereen as Capt. Silva LaForge, one of Geordi LaForge’s parents for TNG’s “Interface” in 1993-94. Sought out by LeVar “Geordi” Burton himself, Sinclair had already appeared as the unnamed captain of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986—the first female starship captain ever seen in Star Trek. In an ironic twist, she had received an Emmy nomination for her role as Bell Reynolds in the landmark miniseries Roots in 1978—playing the wife of Burton's Kunta Kinte character, and the eventual grandmother of Vereen's Chicken George! She eventually won an Emmy for her supporting role in ABC’s Gabriel’s Fire in 1991, and had three more nominations for playing Nurse Ernestine Shoop in CBS’s Trapper John, M.D.
Born Madge Dorita Walters in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1938, Sinclair was a teacher until she left her home country and emigrated to New York to act. She also played the queen mother in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America, and voiced Sarabi, Simba’s mother, in the Disney animated Lion King — both times as the "royal spouse" to roles perfomred by James Earl Jones. Sinclair's career was cut short when she was diagnosed with leukemia and died in 1995, only 2 ½ years after she filmed “Interface.”
