She introduced the word “chifforobe” to the rest of us. To prepare for her audition for this film, she selected her own wardrobe, which included an old blouse and dirty tennis shoes with holes in them. She rubbed cold cream into her hair to make it look disheveled and dirty. Collin Paxton (1935-2009), as Mayella, who accuses Tom Robinson of rape, has an epic breakdown on the witness stand in To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a scene that is still, sixty-plus years later, shocking and, even more, stunning. It is masterful acting.

I’ve written before about Frank Overton’s quiet decency as the county sheriff in the film. I’ve written about our niece Emmy’s acclaimed turn as Scout in the St. Louis Metro Theater Company’s production and her getting the wonderful chance to meet Mary Badham, the film’s Scout.

Someday, I guess, I’ll have to turn to Jem and Calpurnia, too, and to Dill, Capote’s fictional counterpart. But this role is central to the film because Mayella’s testimony—bigotry trumps reason and Atticus’s empiricism—dooms Tom Robinson.

The irony? Collin Paxton was a civil rights activist, passionate about the struggle of Black Americans. When she appeared at an NAACP meeting in Monterey she got silent, sullen looks until it was pointed out the “the actress is not the person.” She did good works, including, with her husband Bill, founding actors’ studios that offered training for free.

That was in Malibu. Paxton was raised in North Carolina, so when she auditioned for the role, she stood out among the young women, pretty and made-up, who had no chance at being Mayella, the daughter of an abusive father, a character who takes his name from two Confederate generals. The role was Paxton’s. It was always meant to be.