... was named Hattie after Hattie McDaniel – the first African American actor to win an Oscar, which she was awarded in 1940 for her performance as 'Mammy', the O'Haras' outspoken house slave, in Gone with the Wind.
In 1946 – two years after her professional stage debut – Jacques was performing in a 'minstrel show' at the Players' Theatre, Covent Garden, when a member of the backstage staff compared her 'blacked up' appearance with Hattie McDaniel. Jacques adopted the name for the rest of her life.
© Haydn Thompson 2019