Actress Irma P Hall, known for playing Big Mama Jo in Soul Food, dies at 91

According to The Guardian, actress Irma P Hall died at the age of 91. Her family confirmed that she passed away on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. Her family shared a statement describing her as "a beloved actress, author, poet, educator and public speaker whose contributions touched countless lives throughout her remarkable career".

Born in Texas in 1935, Hall was the daughter of saxophone player Samuel Player. Before starting her acting career in the early 1980s, she worked for 27 years as a high school teacher in Houston. In a 2001 interview, she stated, "I never knew there [were things] I wasn't supposed to be able to do because I was Black or a woman." Throughout a career spanning six decades, she worked alongside major stars and directors.

In the 1997 drama Soul Food, Hall portrayed Big Mama Joseph, the matriarch to three daughters played by Vanessa Williams, Vivica A Fox, and Nia Long. For this role, she won an outstanding supporting actress award at the NAACP Image Awards. She later reprised the role in a television spin-off that aired from 2000 to 2004. Yahoo and other outlets also noted her iconic portrayal of Big Mama in the film.

Hall's extensive filmography includes appearances in Straight Talk, The Babe, Patch Adams, and Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In 2004, she won a Cannes special jury prize for her performance as landlady Marva Munson in the Coen brothers' The Ladykillers. That same year, she appeared in Michael Mann's thriller Collateral as the mother of Jamie Foxx's character. Her later credits feature Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, and the Sundance television show Hap and Leonard.

Alongside her acting career, Hall was an advocate for the arts and helped establish the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre. The Irma P Hall Black Theatre awards have been held annually since 2015 to recognize artistic achievement in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She was also a church mother at Dallas's Inspiring Body of Christ church. Pastor Rickie G Rush stated, "While we mourn her passing, we are forever grateful for the remarkable legacy she leaves behind." Her daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, remarked, "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."