Dallas actress and longtime resident Irma P. Hall, best known for playing Big Mama Jo in the 1997 film Soul Food, died Tuesday, November 10, surrounded by loved ones, according to an announcement from her family. She was 91.

Hall built a nearly five-decade career in film, television, and theater, earning an NAACP Image Award for Soul Food and a Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in The Ladykillers.

"Her commanding presence and remarkable ability to bring depth and authenticity to every character made her one of Hollywood's most respected and recognizable character actresses and a cultural icon," her family says in a statement.

Before becoming a familiar face on movie screens, Hall spent more than 20 years teaching English and foreign languages in Dallas public schools. She maintained her ties to her native Texas throughout her Hollywood career.

Born Irma Dolores Player on June 3, 1935, in Beaumont, Hall grew up in Chicago before returning to Texas to attend Texas College in Tyler. Her path to acting began unexpectedly when actor and director Raymond St. Jacques discovered her talent during a poetry reading in Dallas, her family says.

She made her film debut in Book of Numbers in 1973, launching a second career that would take her from Dallas stages to Tinseltown sets.

Hall became widely recognized for her portrayal of Big Mama Jo in Soul Food, the 1997 film about a close-knit family whose Sunday dinners bring generations together. She starred alongside stars Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, and Michael Beach.

"One of the most iconic mother roles in film history, "A Song for Mama" by Boyz II Men was written and produced by Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, specifically centering on Irma P. Hall's character in Soul Food," the family statement says. "Decades after its original release, this song is still one of the most popular and enduring Mother's Day anthems of all time."

Hall's other credits included A Family Thing (1996), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Beloved (1998), Patch Adams (1998), The Ladykillers (2004), Collateral (2004), and Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008). She also reprised her role as Mama Joe in the television series based on the film.

Hall's performance in Soul Food earned her an NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in a motion picture. In 2004, she shared a Jury Prize at Cannes for The Ladykillers, in which she starred opposite Tom Hanks. She also received honors from the Chicago and Kansas City film critics associations for A Family Thing and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

Courtesy photo

Irma P. Hall stayed connected to the Dallas arts and theater community throughout her life.

Hall remained connected to Dallas and its arts community her whole life, her family says. She co-founded the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre in 1973. Her contributions are also remembered through the Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Awards, known as The Irmas, an annual celebration of performing and technical theater talent across Dallas-Fort Worth, founded in 2015.

Education remained another lifelong passion. Hall received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts and Education from Texas College in recognition of her work in the arts and education. At Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas, where she was a longtime member and cherished Church Mother, she regularly visited the church's University of Dreams school to read to children and share her love of storytelling. She also participated in the church's theater ministry.

“Today, we celebrate the extraordinary life of a woman whose faith, wisdom and love touched so many," senior pastor Rickie G. Rush says in a statement. "Our beloved Church Mother, Irma P. Hall, has taken her final bow on the stage of life and stepped into eternity.”

Hall is survived by her only daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, who remembered her mother's influence as both an educator and a mentor.

“She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” Crayton says. “My mom used to always say, ‘To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.’ And she was just that to many people.”

Funeral services and memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date.