Gladys Knight facts: Songs, movies, Bond theme, age and children of the Empress of Soul

23 April 2026, 13:21

Gladys Knight is one of the all-time great soul singers, still going strong today.

Gladys Knight has more than earned the title of The Empress of Soul.

From her earliest days with The Pips to her stunning solo career, she has been a bedrock of gospel, soul and R&B over the decades.

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Gladys has stopped jet-setting around the world, but is still very much on the road, taking her songs around the US to this day.

But how much do you know about the life and times of Gladys Knight?

Read on for everything you need to know about the soul legend.

How old is Gladys Knight and where was she born?

Gladys Maria Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 28, 1944, which means that she celebrated her 81st birthday in 2026.

Her mum was nurse's aid Sarah Elizabeth Woods and dad postal worker Merald Woodlow Knight Sr.

She has three siblings: a sister Brenda, and brothers Merald "Bubba" Jr. and David "Billy".

Gladys went to Booker T. Washington High School before moving and graduating from Archer High School.

How did Gladys Knight get into the music business and who were The Pips?

Like so many American stars of the 1950s and 1960s, Gladys came from a gospel background.

She was raised a Baptist and was singing gospel at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Atlanta when she was just four years old.

When she was only eight years old, she won Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour TV singing Nat King Cole's 'Too Young'.

It was a little while later that she joined forces with her talented family: siblings Brenda and Bubba, and cousins Eleanor and William Guest.

Gladys Knight "Too Young" (1997)

Their manager was their cousin James 'Pip' Woods, and they borrowed his nickname for their brandname, The Pips.

And The Pips didn't do it the easy way. They played shows at church (of course), talent shows and on the supporting bill at local pubs, before eventually being signed by Brunswick Records in 1957. They released their debut single 'Whistle My Love' the following year.

There were some comings and goings. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest left in 1959. Edward Patten and Langston George joined in 1959, though the latter would leave in 1962.

The revamped Pips scored an R&B chartopper and number 6 on the pop charts with Johnny Otis's 'Every Beat of My Heart' in 1961.

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Every Beat Of My Heart - 11/06/1976 • World of Jazz

Gladys herself dipped out for a little while, marrying James "Jimmy" Newman in 1960 and having a couple of children by 1963.

They released the albums Letter Full of Tears in 1962 and Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1965 on the Fury and Maxx labels respectively.

They then made he career-defining leap on to the Motown label with 1966's 'Just Walk in My Shoes' and the following year's Everybody Needs Love LP.

What are Gladys Knight's biggest songs?

Gladys Knight & The Pips - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Lyric Video)

Gladys Knight's biggest songs include:

• Every Beat of My Heart
• Letter Full of Tears
• Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me
• I Heard It Through the Grapevine
• The End of Our Road
• The Nitty Gritty
• Friendship Train
• If I Were Your Woman
• I Don't Want to Do Wrong
• Help Me Make It Through the Night
• Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)
• Daddy Could Swear, I Declare
• Midnight Train to Georgia
• I've Got to Use My Imagination
• Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me
• On and On
• I Feel a Song (In My Heart)
• The Way We Were/Try to Remember
• So Sad the Song
• Baby, Don't Change Your Mind
• Come Back and Finish What You Started
• Love Overboard
• That's What Friends Are For (with Dionne Warwick, Elton John & Stevie Wonder)
• Licence To Kill
• Men
• Missing You (with Brandy, Tamia & Chaka Khan)

What was Gladys Knight's James Bond theme and was it a hit?

Licence To Kill

One song you'll spot on that list above is 'Licence To Kill', which was Gladys's theme for the 1989 Bond film of the same name.

It hit all the right Bond notes, and while the song was only a minor hit in the US (18 on the adult contemporary chart), back in 007's home country it was a major smash, getting to number 6.

'Licence to Kill' did well across Europe, and even topped the chart in Sweden.

When did Gladys Knight get into acting and what were her biggest film and TV roles?

Not content with conquering the world of music for a few decades, Gladys has, since the mid-1970s, also popped up on the small and big screen.

It all started in 1976 when she played the lead role in Stephen F. Verona's romantic drama Pipe Dreams, opposite her then-real-life husband Barry Hankerson (more on him later).

After that she popped up on acclaimed TV movie Desperado, 1993 comedy Twenty Bucks and 2003 Harrison Ford/Josh Hartnett vehicle Hollywood Homicide, among others.

The Bee Is Revealed | Season 1 Ep. 10 | THE MASKED SINGER

More recently she has turned up on films like Almost Christmas and Coming 2 America.

On TV, Gladys appeared as herself on The Muppets and The Jeffersons (two American institutions) before a co-leading role on sitcom Charlie & Co.

There's been a healthy sprinkling of small screen roles since then, including recurring parts in The Jamie Foxx Show and The First Family.

In 2019, Gladys' won third place in The Masked Singer as Bee.

How many times has Gladys Knight been married and does she have any children?

Gladys Knight has been married four times.

She wed James Newman in the earlier days of The Pips, back in 1960, and they divorced in 1973 after having two children. They had been separated for several years by the time the divorce was finalised.

Gladys then married Barry Hankerson in 1974 and they had a son together, but they divorced in 1979. She was married to Les Brown from 1995 to 1997.

She then married William McDowell in 2001, and they are still married today.