Chip Fields

Chip Fields
Chip Fields
Personal Information
Gender:	Female
Birth name:	Laverne Bernard
Also known as:	Chip Hurd Chip Fields-Hurd
Born:	(1951-08-05) August 5, 1951
Birthplace:	Harlem, New York City, U.S.
Career/Family Information
Occupation/ Career:	Singer, Actress, Television Director, Consultant, Dialogue Coaching
Years active:	1974–present
Spouse(s):	Anthony Fields, 1969-1974 John Randolph, 1983-1991 Ervin Hurd, 1994-Present
Children:	Kim Fields (b. 1969) Alexis Fields (b. 1982)
Character information
Appeared on:	Good Times
Character played:	Rochelle / Linella Gordon in 6 episodes in Seasons 4-6

Laverne "Chip" Fields (born August 5, 1951), who is sometimes credited as Chip Hurd or Chip Fields-Hurd, is a talented singer, actress, television director, consultant, and dialogue coach, who has appeared in popular films, television shows, and Broadway theatre. She is best known for her recurring role on "Good Times" as Linella Gordon, the abusive birth mother of Penny Gordon Woods in a four-part episode "The Evans Get Involved" in Season 5 (episodes 1-4). She then returned in the Season 6 episode "A Matter of Mothers" (episode #20), where she married into wealth and tried to set up Willona as an unfit adoptive mother to get Penny back, but failed.

She also made an appearance as Rochelle in the two-part episode "J.J.'s New Career: Part 2" in Season 4 (episodes 7-8).

Acting career

Fields began her acting career as an extra in the 1974 film Claudine. She has had numerous supporting roles and guest appearances on television. She played an unwed mother opposite Patty Weaver in the NBC television soap opera, Days of our Lives. Also during the '70s, she played Linella Gordon, the abusive birth mother of Penny Gordon Woods and Rochelle, one of J.J.'s dates on the sitcom Good Times. She played Rita Conway in the short-lived The Amazing Spider-Man TV Series from 1978-1979. Rita Conway was J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, the same function as the African-American Glory Grant from the 1970s comics. She also appeared in What's Happening!!, Hill Street Blues, T.J. Hooker, Roc, Kirk (a short-lived sitcom starring Kirk Cameron), The Wayans Bros., and The Parkers.

Chip, asides from acting, has been a consultant for The Parkers, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, Living Single, and was a dialogue coach for the film, Menace II Society. She has also directed episodes of the popular UPN sitcoms, One on One, All of Us, Girlfriends, The Parkers, as well as episodes of Romeo!, Just Jordan, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Hannah Montana, Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Meet the Browns.

Early life / career

Born Laverne Bernard in Harlem, New York City, she was raised in Virginia by an uncle Louis Bernard, and his wife Alice with an older sister, Patricia "Pat" Bernard. When Chip was eight, she and her sister moved back to New York City to live with their mother, Patsy Styles, a Harlem dancer, who had partnered with famed singer / bandleader Billy Eckstine, and also was a backup singer for Pearl Bailey.

Young Chip was accepted into the prestigious New York High School of Performing Arts on West 46th Street. While in high school, she met Evander High School basketball star Anthony "Tony" Fields At Harlem's YMCA. The two began dating, and became high school sweethearts. Chip became pregnant during her senior year of high school. She snd Tony married On January 15, 1969; four months later, the then seventeen-year-old Chip gave birth to daughter Kim Victoria Fields on May 12, 1969. Chip had to switch to a different high school to get her diploma. She and Tony divorced in 1974 after five years of marriage.

In 1975, Chip starred in the broadway play Hello Dolly, which ran from July to December 1975. In 1976, three weeks after Chip finished Hello Dolly, her mother Patsy (who was a heavy smoker her whole life) passed away from lung cancer. Chip stated that she felt no attachment to Harlem after her mother Patsy died, so, a few months later, she and her then seven-year-old daughter Kim moved to Los Angeles, California, settling in a small apartment on Larrabee Street in West Hollywood. Chip signed Kim up to audition for the famous Mrs. Butterworth's margarine TV commercial, which Kim was approved for, and which served as the start of young Kim's acting career.

Chip has appeared in or made guest appearances in numerous movies and TV shows, which include the 1974 film Claudine, Living Single, Good Times, Blue Collar, The Amazing Spider-Man, Battered, Hill Street Blues, The Lady In Red, Etc). She also has directed numerous TV shows, which include The Parkers, Girlfriends, Romeo!, Sister Sister, Hannah Montana, Hanging With Mr. Cooper, Tyler Perry's House Of Payne, Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns, One on One, and most recently, she directed Seasons 1 and 2 Of Tyler Perry's Young Dylan in 2020 and 2021.

Chip married John Randolph in 1980; they welcomed a daughter, Alexis Minor Fields (who is also an actress) on March 1, 1982; they divorced in the late 1980s. On August 20, 1994, she married technical director Erv Hurd, whom she met while working on the ABC-TV series Me And The Boys. Chip, who is not on any social media platform, lives a quiet private life with husband Erv in Los Angeles, CA.

External links

• Chip Fields at the Internet Movie Database
• Chip Fields article at Wikipedia