tributes

Aretha Franklin’s Only TV Acting Appearance Was on Room 222 in 1972

Photo: ABC

The late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin’s career was full of achievements, and though she played herself in many different appearances (including on Murphy Brown), she only ever acted once on television. She made a brief appearance, as MeTV points out, in ABC’s high-school series Room 222 in January of 1972, playing Inez Jackson, a spiritual leader who helps one character deal with his parents’ insistence that he become a minister. Aretha sings “Guide Me Thy Great Jehovah,” and of course, kills it. “Is she a minister?” one character asks his friend. “No, but she ministers,” she replies. Truer words!

Aretha Franklin’s Only TV Acting Appearance Was in 1972