Barbara Anita Meek was an American actress best known to television viewers for playing the character of Ellen Canby for two seasons on Archie Bunker's Place. Since 1968, Meek was an active member of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, and appeared in more than 100 Trinity Rep stage productions.
Early life
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Juanita and Harold Talmadge Meek, and is the maternal granddaughter of the Reverend Horatius "H.H." Coleman, pastor of the Greater Macedonia Baptist Church. She was a graduate of Northwestern High School, and as an undergraduate was asked to join Wayne State University's graduate theater program. Meek was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority while attending college. In 1965, Meek toured with the United Services Organization, performing for wounded soldiers on Okinawa and other U.S. Army bases. In 1968, she joined the Trinity Repertory Company with her husband, Martin Molson, where they debuted together in Brother to Dragons.
Career at Trinity
Highlights of Meek's stage career at Trinity included leading roles in the August Wilson plays Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, James Purdy's Eustace Chisholm and the Works, Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena, Peer Gynt, The Threepenny Opera, Tartuffe, The Visit, Fires in the Mirror, Adrian Hall and Robert Cumming's adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Terrence McNally's Master Class, Henry IV, Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer and, more recently, Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Meek also appeared in the Broadway production of Wilson in the Promised Land. In 2008, Meek appeared in Blithe Spirit at Trinity Rep, and Curt Columbus' adaptation of Antigone. She was in Camelot, The Crucible and Steel Magnolias during the 2010–2011 season, and Sparrow Grass in the 2011–2012 season.
Meek's other television roles included Adrian Hall's adaptations of Robert Penn Warren's Brother to Dragons, Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life Among the Lowly, all broadcast on PBS; Melba, starring Melba Moore, on CBS; and Big Brother Jake, starring Jake Steinfeld, on The Family Channel. Meek was also featured in the Emmy Award-winning television movie See How She Runs with Joanne Woodward, and the television movie Jimmy B. and Andre, starring Susan Clark and Alex Karras. Meek made guest appearances as Veronica Everestt on As the World Turns in both 1992 and 1997, Samantha Monroe on General Hospital in 1994 and 1999, and Verne Garrison on Guiding Light in both 1993 and 1999.
