Josephine Marie Premice portrayed two memorable characters on A Different World

A memorable actress

In season 3 episode 19 of A Different World titled Hillman's Not Through With You Yet Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) gets a job with a cosmetics company. It sounded like the name was Princess Permise but now I wonder if it could have been Princess Premice a shout-out to actor Josephine Premice who would appear in seasons 4 and 6.

Josephine Marie Premice was born on July 21, 1926, and passed away on April 13, 2001. She is well known to fans of A Different World for portraying two characters. In season 4 she portrayed Erdine Abernathy and she played Desiree Porter in season 6. Premice was a Haitian-American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage. Her family came from Haitian royalty.

A Differnt World made good use of talented actors

A Different World had several actors who played more than one role. Dominic Hoffman portrayed Kent St. Charles in season 2 a young man Marion Gilbert (Diane Carroll) wanted Whitley to date. In season 4 he was Julian Day who dated Whitley for a while and returned with a fiancee named Shelby in season 5.

Michael Ralph who was one of the pledges to Kapa Lamda Nu fraternity in season 2, also portrayed Clint, a member of Ron's band Expression, Whitley's co-worker at EH Wright, a fire marshall, and Jaleesa's date. He was a face in the crowd in other episodes and in season 6 portrayed Spencer Boyer who was engaged to Kim Reece (Cahrnelle Brown).

As Abernathy, Premice was trying to stop Whitley from purchasing an expensive painting during an auction. As Porter, she was the landlord in the house where Whitley, Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison), and Ron Johnson ( Darryl Bell) lived.

Josephine Premice was royalty off-screen

Premice was born in New York, to Lucas and Thelomaine Premice who were part of the Haitian aristocracy who fled Haiti. One of her ancestors was Napoleon Premice, a Haitian-born Black veteran of the U.S. Revolutionary War.

Premice and her sister, Adele, were given the education and training of an "at-home finishing school" and treated like part of the elite, at a time when African Americans were treated as second-class citizens, even in the northern states.

Premice was a talented actor

Josephine Premice also appeared as Louise Belafonte during the final weeks of the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm. She had a supporting role in the 1974 television movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman as Mrs. Gaither. The actress also had several guest-starring roles. She appeared on The Jeffersons in 1979, as Louise Jefferson's ( Isabell Sanford) sister and appeared in The Cosby Show in 1986.

Premice made her Broadway debut in a 1945 revue show called Blue Holiday costarring Ethel Waters. She was in the pre-Broadway cast of the musical House of Flowers with Pearl Bailey and Dihann Carroll who portrayed Whitley's mom Marion Gilbert on A Different World.

Additional noteriety

The actress was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in the 1957 musical Jamaica as Ginger alongside leading lady Lena Horne. Josephine Premice was an alumna of Columbia University with a degree in anthropology. She had two children a son Enrico Fales born in 1959 and a daughter Susan Fales-Hill born in 1962 with her estranged husband Timothy Fales.

The actress was also known for her calypso recordings and unique fashion sense which was noted by fans of A Different World. She passed away at age 74 in her Manhattan home on April 13, 2001. Her cause of death was complications of emphysema. In 2003, Fales-Hill published a biography of her mother titled Always Wear Joy: My Mother, Bold and Beautiful.