Willie Maxine Perry, Feb. 12, 1945 – Dec. 8, 2009, mother of filmmaker Tyler Perry and inspiration for his iconic Madea character, has died. The news was posted on Tyler Perry’s website though no cause of death was mentioned. According to the Atlanta Journal/Constitution, she had been sick since last August. Willie Maxine Perry was 64 years old.
She was the true-life inspiration behind Tyler Perry’s most popular character “Madea.”
In fact, it would be fair to say that “Madea” made Tyler Perry career. She embodies a stereotype that the mainstream populace not only relates to, but also believes in – the “Madeas” of the world are out there, haven’t you met one?
But the reality of Tyler Perry and of his mother, Willie Maxine Perry is perhaps quite different than the comedic delve into a character played in drag. Perry has admitted in the past that he, his mother and his siblings were all abused by their father, Emmett R. Perry Sr. So that begs the question of how someone who could inspire the character of Madea – a strong black women, aggressive, outspoken and apt to pull a gun out of her purse – be in, stay in, and put up with an abusive husband? Or maybe the Madea character is a creation of wishful thinking? As someone young and standing powerless before a hurtful, intimidating figure, who could not wish for that gun in the purse?
The only truth is that Tyler Perry, the 40-year old filmmaker, writer, director and producer, turned the experience into an empire, spending the last decade dressed up in drag, playing an elderly black woman named Mabel Simmons, better known as “Madea” and saying that the character was his mother.
He interjected her into “Dairy of a Mad Black Woman,” “Madea Goes to Jail,” “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” and into the hit TV show, “House of Payne.” With Tyler Perry's star continuing to rise, Willie Maxine Perry and her inspiration “Madea” will no doubt continue to be part of all of our lives.
