Helen Martin; Venerable TV and Hollywood Actress

Helen Martin, a character actress remembered as the little old lady next door in Marla Gibbs’ mid-1980s television series “227” and as Halle Berry’s matriarch “Momma Doll” in the Warren Beatty film “Bulworth,” has died. She was 90.

A venerable performer who began her career on Broadway, Martin died Saturday at her home in Monterey, Calif., of a heart attack.

The actress appeared regularly over the last three decades in a number of television series about black families, often as a grandmother or other elderly relative and occasionally as a nun or church worker. She was seen in “That’s My Mama,” starring Clifton Davis, in the early 1970s; “Benson”; “Good Times”; “227,” in her memorable role as mouthy Pearl Shay; “Full House”; “The Parent ‘Hood”; “The Wayans Brothers”; and, in the late 1990s, “Bananas in Pajamas” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.”

Born in St. Louis and brought up in Nashville, Martin performed with local theater groups in Tennessee and formed a 12-man band that she conducted and fronted as a singer. She bowed to parental pressure to attend Fisk University for two years, then left for Chicago and later New York City to build a career in show business.

Martin was one of the original members of Harlem’s American Negro Theater and one of the first African American actresses to make her mark on the Broadway stage. Orson Welles cast her in his production of “Native Son.”

Her other Broadway credits included “Deep Are the Roots,” directed by Elia Kazan; “The Long Dream,” directed by Lloyd Richards; and “The Amen Corner,” written by James Baldwin. She was also cast as an African queen in Jean Genet’s historical play “The Blacks,” which began on Broadway and then toured Europe.

In addition to television series, Martin also appeared in several specials and TV movies. Her favorite role was as the village elder in the mini-series “Roots.”

Martin also did considerable work in motion pictures. Among her films were “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” “A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich,” “Repo Man,” “A Rage in Harlem,” “Doc Hollywood,” “House Party 2,” “Beverly Hills Cop III,” “Kiss the Girls” and “I Got the Hook Up.”

She was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her role as the hero’s grandmother in the 1987 film “Hollywood Shuffle.”

The actress had just completed filming “Something to Sing About,” scheduled for release this spring.

Martin was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in Oakland in 1992.

A memorial service will be planned in Los Angeles.