Lynn Whitfield (May 6, 1953 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress most famous for portraying entertainment pioneer Josephine Baker in 1991. Her other roles include A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) and Eve's Bayou (1998).

After gaining attention on the stage as one of the young women of color who people Ntozake Shange's poetic panorama of the black female experience, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf", Whitfield began appearing in supporting roles in such films as Doctor Detroit (1983) and Silverado (1985) but did not achieve real success until starring in the television films The George McKenna Story, Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, (both 1986) and the miniseries The Women of Brewster Place (1989).

Whitfield vaulted to international attention in the title role of The Josephine Baker Story (1991), the HBO biopic requiring her to age from 18 to 68 to portray the Follies Bergere star turned Resistance and civil rights fighter. In a highly-publicized casting call, she beat out more than 500 women considered world-wide for the role and won an Emmy, achieving "the greatest sense of accomplishment and realization of my vision. It absolutely called upon everything I thought I could do at that point." Her triumph as Baker, however, proved both a blessing and a curse as she became so closely identified with the Jazz Age legend that other opportunities were slow to come along. Whitfield had worked as a regular in two ABC series (Heartbreak and Equal Justice) prior to playing Baker, and the dearth of good offers encouraged her to return to the small screen opposite Bill Cosby in "The Cosby Mysteries" (NBC, 1994-95).

Though critical response to such vehicles as A Thin Line Between Love and Hate and Gone Fishin' (both 1996) was tepid, these features increased her exposure. Whitfield then experienced a career comeback with Eve's Bayou (1997) playing the head of a prosperous, socially prominent black family in Louisiana. She returned to a similar milieu as snobby Martha's Vineyard matron Corinne Coles in the ABC miniseries The Wedding (1998), executive produced by Oprah Winfrey. In recent years, she starred as Dorthea Garibaldi in both The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2. She is recently starring in Mama, I Want To Sing! with Ciara. Lynn Whitfield also starred in the 2007 drama Madea's Family Reunion.

Also credited as: Lynn Butler-Smith.

From notable Louisiana southern aristocracy, leading lady Lynn Whitfield was born in 1953, the eldest of four children and a third-generation BFA graduate from Howard University. Her dentist father was quite instrumental in developing Lynn's initial interest in acting as he was a prime figure in forming community theater in her native Baton Rouge. First garnering attention on the stage by studying and performing with the Black Repertory Company in Washington, D.C, she married one of the company's co-founders and pioneers of black theatre, playwright/director/actor Van Whitfield in 1974. She eventually moved to New York and appeared off-Broadway in such shows as "The Great Macdaddy" and "Showdown" before earning acclaim in the 1977 Los Angeles production of the landmark black play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide...When the Rainbow Is Enuf" co-starring Alfre Woodard. Lynn eventually became a force to be reckoned with on film and TV as well, particularly in quality stories that traced the roots of the black experience. Lynn's prominent family background would help shape many of these intelligent, dignified, true-to-life portrayals. Lynn's Hollywood career unfolded under a talent development program at Columbia Pictures in 1979. Appearing on such established TV shows as "Hill Street Blues" and in a 1982 PBS version of her "For Colored Girls..." stage hit, she made her film debut with Doctor Detroit (1983) and churned up up a number of supports in other popular films such as Silverado (1985), Slugger's Wife, The (1985), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), and Dead Aim (1987). It was TV, however, that garnered her the most attention, working her way into top lead and co-star roles. The topical social dramas George McKenna Story, The (1986) (TV) co-starring Denzel Washington, Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI (1986) (TV) opposite Howard E. Rollins Jr. and Oprah Winfrey's historical miniseries Women of Brewster Place, The (1989) (TV) were her early highlights. The light-skinned, toothsome actress whose fetching beauty and allure certainly brings to mind that of Halle Berry also found steady work playing classy professionals, including two ABC series (a doctor in "Heartbeat" (1988) and a news anchorwoman in "Equal Justice" (1990).) The peak of her critical-acclaimed career came in the form of a highly popular but deeply troubled "Jazz Age" Follies Bergere headliner-turned civil rights activist whom she played with Emmy-winning gusto in the early 1990s. Lynn's trenchant portrayal in the HBO biopic Josephine Baker Story, The (1991) (TV) stretched her to the limits by asking her to play the legendary entertainer from age 18 to 68. Strangely enough, Lynn didn't achieve the stardom that normally accommodates such a triumph with only scattered appearances in its wake. Despite earning an NAACP Image Award in 1992 for her role in the miniseries Stompin' at the Savoy (1992) (TV), she was hard-pressed for meatier roles and after a part in Pauly Shore's uncomedy In the Army Now (1994), went back to series TV alongside Bill Cosby in the short-lived "Cosby Mysteries, The" (1994). Lynn had an upsurge in the late 90s with roles in the films Thin Line Between Love and Hate, A (1996) with Martin Lawrence (I) and Gone Fishin' (1997) with her "Silverado" co-star Danny Glover, and earned excellent reviews for her supporting work in Eve's Bayou (1997), a role that drew on her socially prominent Louisiana heritage. Quality TV saved the day again for Lynn when she starred as Sophie in Sophie & the Moonhanger (1996) (TV), a mini-movie that focused on the relationship of the wife of a Klansman and her longtime black housekeeper. She kept up the momentum with an unsympathetic role in the Oprah Winfrey miniseries Wedding, The (1998) (TV), where she again had to cover a long life span, this time from 19 to 47, and Redemption (2004/I) with Jamie Foxx, an urban film that chronicled the turbulent life of (now) imprisoned L.A. Crips gang founder Stan "Tookie" Williams. Lately she has been spotted in a recurring role in the series "Without a Trace" (2002). Divorced from Vantile Whitfield in the late 70s, her second marriage to director `Brian Gibson', by whom she had daughter Grace, was also brief (1990-1992).