Olga James

Biography

Olga James Adderley-Chandler (February 16, 1929 – January 25, 2025) was born into a musical family – her father played the saxaphone, her mother was a dancer – James would attend Julliard in New York City where she studied opera. She made her professional debut in 1952 in Paris, performing in the opera Four Saints in Three Acts.

After returning to America, James was hired to perform in the all-Black revue at Atlantic City’s Club Harlem. It was while performing in the revue that she got an audition for Preminger’s Carmen Jones, an all-Black musical based on Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, landing the role of Cindy Lou, the fiancée of Belafonte’s Joe.

Two years after Carmen Jones, James gave her first and only Broadway performance in 1956’s Mr. Wonderful, playing the character Ethel Pearson, who sings the title song.

Through her high-profile performances in film and on Broadway, James became a prolific and popular nightclub performer. She met and, in 1962, married the saxophonist Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, their union lasting until his death in 1975. In 1990, James married singer and civil rights activist Len Chandler, who died in 2023.