The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

TV Movie
2017
TV-MA
1h 33m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

Oprah Winfrey in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

Play trailer1:40

2 Videos

15 Photos

Biography Drama History Mystery

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 4 wins & 19 nominations total

Videos2

Photos14

+ 9

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Storyline

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Trivia
In a piece on this movie that aired on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," Eric Deggans said that the source book's author, Rebecca Skloot, told him in an interview that Henrietta Lacks's daughter Deborah Lacks Pullum wanted Oprah to play her in the movie version long before any movie version was actually in the works. Skloot said, "She always said, you know, this book is going to come out. It's going to be a bestseller. Oprah's going to make a movie, and she's going to play me. Like, she was just sure of it." Deborah died in 2009, so she was not alive to see that the book about her mother did become a bestseller and Oprah did play Deborah in the movie adaptation.

Connections
Featured in The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards (2017)

Soundtracks
Working on the Railroad
Traditional
Performed by Compton Jones
Courtesy of The University of Memphis
By arrangement with High Water Records

User reviews47

Featured review

6/10

You will know everything, but Henrietta Lacks!

It's a good biographical drama, but the only problem is its not what exactly the title says. If you believed to learn about Henrietta Lacks and went to see it, you might end disappointingly. Because she was the only topic of the story, not the actual story, except a few glimpses. It is like you watched 'Infamous' or 'Capote', instead of 'In Cold Blood'. That's what like this film. Yet not a bad film.

A writer pursuing the family members of a person who lived in the mid 20th century, because she was a medical phenomenon. Her cells used to treat cancer, despite she had died of cancer, leaving her young kids behind. Her descendants not aware of how things work in the medical research, only misguided by others, finally, set to discover the truth themselves about all the fuss.

It was nominated for the Emmy, but did not win. Oprah was okay, but Rose Byrne impressed me. Except a misleading title, it is a good film, but I really wanted/want to know the Henrietta Lacks. That's funny, because they have told us an unnecessary story. I hope somebody would make a film about actual Henrietta Lacks!

5.5/10