Cynda Williams

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Cynda Williams" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Cindy Ann Williams is an American actress. She is credited as Cynda Williams.

Williams was born Cindy Ann Williams^[1] in Chicago, Illinois to Charles, a police officer^[2] and Beverly, a medical lab technician.^[2] She was raised in the Pullman neighborhood on the city's south side. She spent parts of her early childhood in Indiana, where she sang in her grandfather's church.^[2] Williams attended Bennett Elementary School^[3] before she moved with her mother to Muncie, Indiana, as a teenager. While in Indiana, Williams attended Northside High School; graduating in 1984.^[1] After high school, Williams attended Ball State University, studying theater and was crowned Ms. Ball State in 1987. She graduated in 1989.^[2]

In 1989, Williams changed her first name to "Cynda" to avoid conflicts with Laverne & Shirley actress Cindy Williams, who was also listed by the same name with the Screen Actors Guild. Williams has acted in films on both television and in the cinema. Her first appearance in a feature film was in Spike Lee's 1990 Mo' Better Blues. "In the Midwest, I was told by casting directors that I wasn’t the right type because I didn’t look black enough, and I didn’t look white," says Williams. "But everything changed when I moved to New York, because my look could cross different lines."^[4] She was also in One False Move (1992) as well as the Tales of the City Channel 4/PBS miniseries.

Williams had a brief stint in the music industry in 1990 with her appearance on the soundtrack to Mo' Better Blues, on the song "Harlem Blues". The single was popular, reaching No. 9 on the R&B charts on November 17, 1990. With the success of the single, Williams had been lined up with Sony to produce her own album. While she was trained in a variety of genres, jazz became pressed on her after the success of "Harlem Blues". The album was shelved following internal disagreements at Sony.

Williams was married to actor Billy Bob Thornton, from 1990 to 1992.^[5]

• Cynda Williams at IMDb 
• Cynda Williams Bio at R&B Haven