Della Reese Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese (born July 6, 1931), is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You Know?". In her four decades of acting, she gained a new generation of fans in the 1990s through playing Tess, the lead role on the television show Touched by an Angel. In the late 1960s, she had hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 297 episodes. In more recent times, she... MORE

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese (born July 6, 1931), is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You Know?". In her four decades of acting, she gained a new generation of fans in the 1990s through playing Tess, the lead role on the television show Touched by an Angel. In the late 1960s, she had hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 297 episodes. In more recent times, she became an ordained New Thought minister in the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, California. Reese was born Delloreese Patricia Early in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan to Nellie Mitchelle, a Native American (Cherokee) cook, and African American steelworker Richard Thaddeus Early Delloreese's mother also had several older children, before her birth, all of whom did not live with her, hence, she lived as an only child. At only six years old, Reese began singing in church. From this experience, she became an avid gospel singer. On weekends LESS