Cleavon Little

At 53 years old, Cleavon Little has this physical status:

Career

In the original version of Barbara Garson's MacBird, Little made his professional debut in February 1967, performing off-Broadway at the Village Gate as the Muslim Witch. This was followed by the role of Foxtrot in Bruce Jay Friedman's long-running play Scuba Duba, which premiered in October 1967. During the days at schools and parks on behalf of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he portrayed Foxtrot at night.

He made his first film appearance in What's So Bad About Feeling Good? the following year. (1968), and his first television appearance on two episodes of Felony Squad as a guest star. In films such as John and Mary (1969) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), a series of small roles was followed.

Lee Haines appeared in John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's musical Jimmy Shine in 1969, with Dustin Hoffman in the title role. In 1970, he returned to Broadway to play the title role in Ossie Davis' musical Purlie, for which he received the Tony Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.

Little was hired as an ensemble member on the syndicated television variety show The David Frost Revue, a year later, and he portrayed Shogo in Narrow Road to the Deep North on Broadway. In the car-chase film Vanishing Point, Little was chosen to portray the blind radio personality Super Soul. In the same year, he appeared on "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story" as a result of John-Boy Walton's search for his father; then in season four, he appeared in "The Fighter," about a prizefighter who wants to build a church and be a preacher. In a 1971 episode of All in the Family titled "Edith Writes a Song," he appeared as a burglar.

He appeared on ABC's Temperatures Rising, which appeared in three different iterations from 1972 to 1974, with Little's character of Dr. Jerry Noland as the only common element. He appeared in the television disaster film The Day the Earth Moved, opposite Jackie Cooper and Stella Stevens in 1974. As one of the NASA deliveryman handing Colonel Steve Austin his space suit, Little appeared in the Six Million Dollar Man episode, "Population: Zero."

After the studio rejected Richard Pryor, who co-wrote the script, he appeared in Brooks' comedy western Blazing Saddles (1974). Given Pryor's reputation for opioid use and unpredictable conduct, studio executives were naturally worried about his safety, and they felt that Little would be a safer option. For his work as a Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

Little returned to Broadway in 1975 to play Lewis in Murray Schisgal's All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman. Willy Stepp appeared in Ronald Ribman's original production of The Poison Tree at the Ambassador Theatre next year.

He appeared on The Mod Squad, All in the Family, The Rockford Files, The Love Boat, The Rise Boat, ABC Afterschool Specials, The Fall Guy, MacGyver, and a special Christmas episode of ALF.

Later career

In the racing film Greased Lightning (1977), based on Wendell Scott's true life story, he was the first black stock car racing champion in the United States, Little played a supporting role to Pryor. Other films included FM (1978), Scavenger Hunt (1979), Jimmy the Kid (1981), Toy Soldiers (1984), The Gig (1985), and Fletch Lives (1989).

In 1981, Little returned to the New York stage in The Resurrection of Lady Lester, a "poetic mood song" by OyamO, playing the legendary jazz saxophonist Lester Young.

In December 1985, Little opened in Broadway's Booth Theatre as Midge in Herb Gardner's play I'm Not Rappaport, which received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. In the Seattle Repertory Theatre performance, Little had originated the role of Midge.

In 1989, he appeared in Hirsch's comedy "Stand by Your Man," for which Little received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, beating Robert Picardo, Jack Gilford, Leslie Nielsen, and Sammy Davis Jr.

Little was supposed to appear on the television series Mr. Dugan, in which he would portray a black congressman, but the project was not well-received by real black congressmen and was cancelled before being able to air. On the Fox sitcom True Colors, Frankie Faison was replaced by Frankie Faison as Ronald Freeman, a black dentist married to a white housewife. He appeared in 12 episodes during the same year as a supporting actor on the television show Bagdad Cafe. In the docudrama Separate But Equal, starring Sidney Poitier, who played the first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice in the 1954 Supreme Court case that desegregated public schools, he was cast later that year. Frank Colton, one half of a bounty hunter brother pair, appeared on television series MacGyver as Frank Colton.

In 1992, Little's last appearance as an actor was in a guest appearance on the television series Tales from the Crypt's "This'll Kill Ya." He appeared in the music video for "Show Me How to Live" by Audioslave Eleven years after his death by way of an archive video from Vanishing Point.

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