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1-28 of 28
- Mark Margolis was an American actor who is well-known for his collaborations with film director Darren Aronofsky, particularly Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Noah (2014), Black Swan (2010), and The Fountain (2006). Margolis also gained notoriety for his portrayal of "Tio" Hector Salamanca in the highly successful crossover series Breaking Bad (2008) and Better Call Saul (2015). He also acted in the hit films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Scarface (1983). He has been married to Jacqueline Margolis since 1962 and has one child with her.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Noah Keen was born on 10 October 1920 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Gable and Lombard (1976). He was married to Gerrianne Raphael and Barbara Corday. He died on 24 March 2019 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolly Haas was born on 29 April 1910 in Hamburg, Germany. She was an actress, known for I Confess (1953), A Girl of the Street (1932) and Der Ball (1931). She was married to Al Hirschfeld and John Brahm. She died on 16 September 1994 in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Bumpy Johnson was born on 31 October 1905 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was married to Mayme Hatcher-Johnson. He died on 7 July 1968 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Chuck Patterson was born on 11 February 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Hair (1979), The Night of the Strangler (1972) and Spenser: For Hire (1985). He was married to Cori Thomas. He died on 23 December 2013 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Ralph Cooper was called "The Dark Gable" after Clark Gable, of course, because of his handsome, rugged good looks and his charm and wit. Too talented and handsome for Hollywood and wouldn't accept stereotype roles Hollywood gave Blacks - so he went and made and starred in films for Blacks. While choreographing a Shirley Temple movie "Poor Little Rich Girl" he studied and watching the movie-making process and made some of the best Black-cast films of the time. On screen he usually played gangsters and bad men in the same acting styles of James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. His movies were smashes in the Black community. Cooper was also an emcee and helped create the famous Apollo Theater. He helped the Legends we know now to stardom. He was a very talented man a tap dancer, choreographer, wonderful actor, bandleader, singer and writer.- Composer
- Executive
- Soundtrack
Lamont Coleman was born on 30 May 1974 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and executive, known for Transporter 3 (2008), Mid90s (2018) and Black Mask (1996). He died on 15 February 1999 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Danny Xtravaganza was born on 14 July 1961 in Puerto Rico. He died on 9 January 1996 in Harlem, New York, USA.
- A renowned writer, producer, teacher, actor and visionary, African-American Barbara Ann Teer grew disillusioned with the negative stereotypes she came across in her quest for responsible acting roles. Instead of simply walking away from the white-dominated entertainment field, she decided to make a difference. Focusing on appreciation of African-American culture in Harlem, she became a strong, eloquent symbol for the city and it was she who founded Harlem's distinguished National Black Theater (NBT), running it tirelessly for four decades until her death at age 71.
The Illinois native, who was born in East St. Louis on June 18, 1937, to parents who both served as educators and school administrators, her father also served in city government. An extremely gifted child, Barbara graduated from high school at age 15. First attending Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, she experienced a strong racial divide that would shape her later character. She transfered after her freshman year and received her bachelor of arts (graduating magna cum laude) in dance education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She then studied dance in Europe and at one point toured with Martha Graham. She moved to New York in 1959 and appeared in a number of stage productions there, making her Broadway debut as a dancer in 1961's "Kwamina" while also serving as dance captain to famed choreographer 'Agnes DeMille'. Injuries eventually forced her to rethink the direction of her career. She returned to Broadway five years later as part of the cast of the comedy "Where's Daddy?" An early, brief marriage to actor/comedian Godfrey Cambridge, who succumbed to a heart attack in 1976, ended in divorce.
Off-Broadway Barbara earned her share of notices along with other prominent and/or up-and-coming black talent. Productions included "Raisin' Hell in the Son" (1962) with Janet MacLachlan; "Home Movies" (1964), which earned her a Drama Desk Award; "Day of Absence" (1965) with Robert Hooks, Esther Rolle, Adolph Caesar, Frances Foster, Hattie Winston and Moses Gunn; and "Who's Got His Own" (1966) with Estelle Evans, Roger Robinson and Glynn Turman. But she grew restless and felt she wasn't expanding enough. During the 1960s she also began teaching at Harlem's Wadleigh Junior High School. It was her method of instruction that helped to develop the Group Theatre Workshop, which would become the foundation for the illustrious Negro Ensemble Company.
The couple of roles she received in film were prime examples of her discontent. Slaves (1969), helmed and produced by white executives, starred Stephen Boyd, Dionne Warwick and Ossie Davis was an Old South rehash deemed trashy and overwrought with caricature types with Boyd serving as a Simon Legree stand-in. In The Angel Levine (1970), she played a welfare woman. As far back as 1968, she wrote a fierce article in The New York Times encouraging a change. Wishing better for herself as a person and a performer, she sought an autonomous black artistic culture free from mainstream influence.
That same year (1968) Teer founded the National Black Theater, a non-profit institution dedicated to the performing arts, community advocacy and the appreciation of the history and lifestyle of Black Americans. The theater bought its own residence at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue with financing she arranged. As its executive director, she took on the daunting task of fund-raising in addition to her administrative duties. The theater held classes, workshops, symposiums and lectures, produced shows, and presented art exhibits. Creatively, she also wrote and directed for the theater's music, dance and theater troupe that subsequently toured in Bermuda, Guyana, Haiti, South Africa and Trinidad, and throughout the United States. Two of her plays, "Revival, A: Change! Love! Organize!" and "Soljourney into Truth," were first produced at NBT in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Both themes reflected black culture and the importance of self-love. On stage at NBT, the appeared in "Five on the Black Hand Side" (1969) along with Jonelle Allen, Theresa Merritt and Clarice Taylor.
Barbara's significance to Harlem's cultural renaissance was rewarded in later years. Dr. Barbara Ann Teer received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Rochester, New York in 1994, and the following year a second honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from the University of Southern Illinois. She also was the 2001 recipient of the Otto Award for political theater. Listed in "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who Worldwide," she received more than sixty awards and citations for her contributions.
Barbara died of natural causes in her beloved Harlem on July 21, 2008, at age 71. As tribute, she laid in state at the National Black Theatre. She is survived by her two children, Barbara and Michael Lipscott, and was interred back with her ancestors in her native East St. Louis. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Isabel Washington was born on 23 May 1908 in Savannah, Georgia, USA. She was an actress, known for St. Louis Blues (1929), Adam Clayton Powell (1989) and Dave Apollon and His Russian Stars (1929). She was married to Adam Clayton Powell Jr.. She died on 4 May 2007 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Richard Porter died on 3 January 1990 in Harlem, New York, USA.
- Johnny Copeland was born on 27 March 1937 in Haynesville, Louisiana, USA. He died on 3 July 1997 in Harlem, New York, USA.
- Luther Rackley was born on 11 June 1946 in Bainbridge, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last Dinosaur (1977) and The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979). He died on 19 November 2017 in Harlem, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mary Small was a musical prodigy and the first singer well known by the moniker "The Little Girl With The Big Voice." At 11 years old and in the midst of the Great Depression she was discovered by Rudy Vallee. She attained success in her careers as a radio star, television personality, Broadway actress and in her later years was a highly sought after vocal coach in Manhattan.- Actress
- Producer
Gertrude Jeannette was born on 28 November 1914 in Urbana, Arkansas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Shaft (1971), Nothing But a Man (1964) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970). She was married to Joe Jeanette. She died on 4 April 2018 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Julia De Burgos was born on 17 February 1914 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. She was a writer, known for Julia: All in Me (2002) and Vida y poesía de Julia de Burgos (1978). She was married to Armando Marín and Ruben Rodrigues Beauchamp. She died on 5 July 1953 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Gillian Walker was born on 22 June 1940 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Gillian was married to Albert Maysles. Gillian died on 15 January 2024 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Chip Banks was born on 28 June 1970 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Black & White (1999). He died on 24 November 2000 in Harlem, New York, USA.- Pauline Dempsey was born in 1868. She was an actress, known for Modern Marriage (1923), A Successful Adventure (1918) and Pals First (1918). She died on 21 September 1923 in Harlem, New York, USA.
- DJ Jaffe was born on 21 November 1954 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was married to Paula Orndoff and Rose Wagner. He died on 23 August 2020 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Bill Perkins was born on 18 April 1949 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Pamela Green . He died on 16 May 2023 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Aubrey Lyles was an African American songwriter and lyricist who also was a Broadway actor and vaudeville performer as part of a duo with Flournoy Miller (who was better known as F.E. Miller). Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1883, Lyles met Miller when he was studying medicine at Fisk University. The two went to work at the first African American theatrical company, Chicago's Pekin Theater Stock Company, from 1906 to 1909.
The duo's Broadway debut was in August 1907 at the Harlem Music Hall, when the Pekin Theater Company brought the musical comedy "The Husband" to New York. Miller and Lyles wrote the book and lyrics. Independent of the Pekin Theater, they had a second Broadway show in 1907, "The Oyster Man".
Lyles made his Broadway debut as a performer in the 1912 musical "The Charity Girl", playing the character "Jumbo" (Miller played "Mumbo"). They did not contribute any writing to the show. By this time, they were a vaudeville act billed as Miller and Lyles, touring the U.S. and England.
They wrote the book for the 1921 Broadway musical "Suffle Along", collaborating with Eubie Blake (who wrote the music) and lyricist Noble Sissle. Lyles and Miller also were performers in the show, which was a huge hit, playing for 484 performances. They also worked on another Broadway show, "Runnin' Wild" in 1923, providing the book and performing in the production. It also was a hit, running for 228 performances.
Lyles and Miller performed in the 1926 hit musical revue "The Great Temptations", which racked up 226 performances. The following year, they not only performed in but made their directing debut in "Rang Tang", a musical revue that ran for 119 performances. In 1928, they wrote the book and performed in the musical comedy "Keep Shuffling", which featured music by Fats Waller. Their last successful Broadway show, it played for 104 performances.
In 1929, Miller and Lyles appeared in the musical comedy "Great Day". It closed after only 36 performances. That same year, Lyles split with Miller, though in December 1931, they were back on Broadway together, in the musical comedy "Sugar Hill", a flop that closed in January 1932 after only 11 performances. Later that year, they started to develop a new show, "Shuffle Along of 1933", but their partnership was terminated with finality when Lyles died of tuberculosis in July.- Master bassist Henry Grimes, missing from the music world since the late '6Os, has made an unprecedented comeback after receiving the gift of a bass (a green one called Olive Oil!) from William Parker in December 20O2 to replace the instrument he had given up some 2O years earlier. Between the mid-'5Os and the mid-'6Os, the Philadelphia-born, Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus), Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Perry Robinson, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Rev. Frank Wright, and many more ... and then one day, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world in those days, he disappeared. Many years passed with nothing heard from Henry, yet after a very short while with his new bass, he emerged to begin working with Bobby Bradford, Nels and Alex Cline, Joseph Jarman, and others at Billy Higgins's World Stage, the Howling Monk, the Jazz Bakery, and Schindler House in the Los Angeles area. On his triumphant return to New York City in May 20O3, he played as special guest on two nights of the six-night Vision Festival, gave live concerts and lengthy interviews on the air daily during a five-day WKCR Henry Grimes Radio Festival, and offered a bass clinic before 5O New York-area bassists who haven't stopped talking about him since. He followed this with three virtually sold-out nights at Iridium in New York City leading his own band. These days, Grimes lives, works, and teaches in New York City and has been working almost exclusively as a leader with Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Jane Getz, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and many more. He has toured extensively in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Holland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the U.S. in 20O3 and 20O4, with more to follow. The recipient of a "Meet the Composer" award in 20O3, he was also designated "Musician of the Year" by "All About Jazz/ New York." Still in his sixties, Henry Grimes is healthy and strong, and his gentle, humble bearing and courageous life story have inspired all those privileged to know him, hear him, play music with him.
- Jackie Tonawanda was born on 4 September 1933 in Suffolk County, New York, USA. She died on 9 June 2009 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochanan was born on 31 December 1918 in Gondar, Ethiopia. He died on 19 March 2015 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Greg Marius died on 22 April 2017 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Marie Knight was born on 1 June 1925 in Sanford, Florida, USA. She is known for Origin of Hair (2019), Music 55 (1955) and Six-Five Special (1957). She died on 31 August 2009 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Additional Crew
Gianfranco Gorgoni was born on 24 December 1941 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is known for Herb & Dorothy (2008), American Experience (1987) and Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art (2015). He was married to Teta Frye. He died on 11 September 2019 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.