Kathryn Loder

Ms. Loder was involved in an unfortunate (for her) incident in 1967 which garnered national headlines. While playing the lead role in Shaw's "Antony and Cleopatra" for the Theater Atlanta Repertory Company, she fell and broke her hand. This necessitated her leaving the show, for which she was receiving excellent reviews. She was replaced with the legendary African American actress Diana Sands, who happened to be performing in another Atlanta show. This was believed to have been the first time an African American actress had played a "white" role before a Southern audience - and an integrated one at that. This incident garnered much national press, including a mention in Time Magazine. Sadly and ironically, Ms. Sands, like Ms. Loder, died young in her late 30s.

Ms. Loder got her start in films by winning a talent contest that was sponsored by the American Television Academy and a film studio. She used a monologue she had performed in a play, thereby securing a screen test and an appearance on the Emmy Awards telecast to perform the same monologue. This lead to her being cast in the 1970 comedy-horror flick, "Night of the Witches." Director Jack Hill was so impressed by her performance in this film that he cast her in two of his most notorious exploitation classics, "The Big Doll House" and "Foxy Brown".

Director Jack Hill claims to have had to fight American International Pictures to cast her as Katherine Wall in his 1974 Blaxpoitation classic, "Foxy Brown", a part he had written specifically for her. The studio did not want to pay the air fare to fly her from New York to the filming location in Los Angeles.