Bringing Henrietta Lacks to life
Oprah Winfrey stars as Deborah Lacks, the daughter of the title character in the HBO film “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” that premieres 8 p.m. Saturday, April 22, on HBO. Mrs. Lacks, a Virginia native who moved her family from their Halifax County tobacco farm in 1941 to Maryland, was a cancer patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She died in 1951 not knowing that her tumor cells, now known as HeLa cells, were harvested by hospital researchers and duplicated for use even today by scientists for medical testing around the world. The HBO movie is based on the best-selling book about Mrs. Lacks and her unknowing and uncompensated contribution to the world. Actress Rose Byrne, left, portrays the book’s author, Rebecca Skloot, in the film.
