LOS ANGELES – Barbara McNair, the pioneering black singer-actress who hosted her own TV variety show and starred with Sidney Poitier in the early 1970s, has died. She was 72.

Ms. McNair died Sunday of throat cancer in Los Angeles, sister Jacqueline Gaither said.

Gaining fame in the 1960s as a nightclub singer, Ms. McNair graduated to film and television as opportunities were opening up for black women late in the decade. She made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 in the film If He Hollers, Let Him Go.

She later starred with Elvis Presley in his 1969 film Change of Habit and as Mr. Poitier's wife in the 1970 film They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!

She found movie acting "a more rewarding kind of work than singing," she told The Washington Post in 1969. "When I'm working in a club, I must go from one song to another rapidly and I don't have much time to express myself emotionally. In a movie, you can concentrate on one scene at a time."

Ms. McNair hosted The Barbara McNair Show, a syndicated musical and comedy program, from 1969 to 1972.

Her career was hampered in 1972, when she was accused of drug possession along with her husband after she signed for a package delivered to her dressing room. She was later cleared.

Associated Press