Mae Mercer, a deep-voiced blues singer who spent much of the 1960s performing at a blues bar in Paris and touring Europe before launching an acting career back home in films and television, has died. She was 76.
Mercer was found dead Oct. 29 at her home in Northridge, said Reginald D. Brown, a friend. He said the cause of death had not been determined, but Mercer had suffered two mini-strokes last year and had been in ill health.
The tall, North Carolina-born Mercer sang what bluesman Willie Dixon once described as “the real low-down blues."
“I would classify her as a classic blues singer," said Brown, who is making a documentary about Mercer. “She had a deep, powerful voice. Her idol was Bessie Smith, so she sang in that idiom."
Mercer performed at the club for eight years, Brown said, with Memphis Slim on piano and Sonny Criss on alto saxophone. She also toured Europe during the summers with the Keith Smith Climax Jazz Band. In the 1970s, after returning to the United States, Mercer had roles in the Don Siegel-directed Clint Eastwood movies “The Beguiled" and “Dirty Harry."
