Irma P. Hall, teacher who became 'Soul Food', 'Ladykillers' scene-stealer, dies at 91

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Set us as preferred Actor Irma P.Hall, the former educator who pivoted to acting in her late 30s to star in films including “Soul Food,” “The Ladykillers” and “Meet the Browns,” has died.

She was 91.Hall died Tuesday in Dallas surrounded by her loved ones, her family announced Wednesday in a statement.

Her family said the actor leaves behind a “remarkable legacy” that spans from her memorable characters on screen, her time as a teacher early in life and her role as a church leader in Dallas in her final years.A cause of death was not revealed.“She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” Hall’s daughter Irma Hall Crayton said in the statement.

“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.”Hall, who was born in Texas and raised in Chicago, is best known to film fans for portraying scene-stealing, elderly types.She was Big Mama, the matriarch of the central Joseph family, in George Tillman Jr.’s 1997 “Soul Food,” starring Vanessa Williams, Vivica A.

Fox and Nia Long as her three daughters.That same year she shared the screen with Kevin Spacey and John Cusack as witchy healer Minerva in Clint Eastwood’s Savannah-set “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” In the Coen brothers’ “The Ladykillers,” Hall was the religious and aging widow who rents a spare room to a deceiving “professor” (Tom Hanks) and his band of criminals posing as musicians (Marlon Wayans, J.K.

Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst).She earned numerous accolades for her work, including an NAACP Image Award for her work in “Soul Food” and a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for “The Ladykillers.” Entertainment & Arts Actor Stacy Keach, best known for his t...