‘Vampire Diaries’ Star Kat Graham To Headline Tammi Terrell BiopicPosted by Wilson Morales
May 27, 2015
Source: Deadline
Kat Graham, who stars in The CW’s ‘Vampire Diaries,’ is set to headline the biopic of Tammi Terrell, the woman who teamed with Marvin Gaye on a string of 1960s Motown hits before dying of a brain tumor at age 24.
Deadline is reporting that the film will produced by Robert Teitel, Rose Ganguzza and Hilary Shor. The script is being written by Mayram Day.
According to Sabotagetimes,Thomasina Montgomery, who would go on to be better known by the name Tammi Terrell, was born in Philadelphia during the closing months of World War II. A promising singer throughout her childhood, she managed to land her first record deal, with a subsidiary of Scepter Records, at the age of just fifteen. As an indicator of her precociousness, she semi-retired from the music industry to study pre-med at the University of Philadelphia.
During 1965, she was spotted by famous Motown supremo, Berry Gordy, who signed her to his label on her twentieth birthday. In 1967, the most fruitful period of Terrell’s career began, when Marvin Gaye was hired to sing duets with her. The pair released three fantastic albums of love songs at the end of the 1960s, all sprinkled with Motown classics as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re Precious Love” and “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing.”
In October 1967, Terrell collapsed onstage while performing with Gaye, and doctors diagnosed her with a brain tumor. She continued to record with Gaye and scored a few more solo hits before dying in 1970.
In speaking with the website, Graham stated, “I immediately connected to Tammi and her story in many ways and have felt the incredible need to tell it. Tammi Terrell defined passion and soul itself. … Getting lost in the music enabled her to override life’s punishments — for when she sang, she could use the hurt to create greatness and give the world hope that maybe they could overcome their pain as well.”
Best known for her role of Bonnie Bennett on The CW supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries, Graham was last seen in theaters opposite Boris Kodjoe in Bille Woodruff’s Addicted. She also worked with Woodruff in Honey 2, which went straight-to-DVD and was the sequel to the 2003 film Honey that starred Jessica Alba.
Graham’s production company Panthera Pictures is part of the producing team. It is packaged through WME in conjunction with Charles Kings’ Macro.
