Dorothy Van Engle, a 1930s star of several films of the pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, died Monday in Ocala, Fla., her family said. She was 87 and had recently moved to Ocala from her ...

You’ve probably heard of actress Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the 1939 film, “Gone With the Wind.” But what about Theresa Harris? Dorothy Van Engle?

Dorothy Van Engle, an African-American leading lady known for her roles in “Murder in Harlem” and other so-called race films of the 1930s, died May 10 in Florida of a protein deficiency. She was 87.