Esther Scott, an actress who specialized in playing matriarchal roles in films and on television — most notably in the movies “Boyz N the Hood” and “Dreamgirls” — died on Feb. 14 in Los Angeles. She was 66.

Her sister Shaun Scott, said that Ms. Scott had a heart attack and was found unconscious in her home in Santa Monica on Feb. 11, and that she died at the UCLA Medical Center.

Esther Scott made a career of being the familiar face of nurturing but sometimes strict characters in over 70 movies and on many TV shows.

In “Boyz N the Hood,” John Singleton’s 1991 movie about the challenges young black men faced growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Ms. Scott played the grandmother of the protagonist’s love interest. In a memorable scene, she chases the young man out of her granddaughter’s bedroom while wielding a meat cleaver.