The 1970s produced the film genre that would become known as ‘Blaxploitation’. These films were made specifically with an urban Black audience in mind. These movies were larger-than-life, action-packed and full of funk and soul music. These films also incorporated progressive social and political commentary. From Pam Grier to Bill Cosby, check out who delved into this genre and what the actors have been doing since the 1970s.
Pam Grier’s fame grew in the 1970s when she starred in several Blaxploitation films like ‘Coffy’ and ‘Foxy Brown’. Grier revitalized her career and paid homage to the ’70s genre in 1997 when she appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown.’ Her role as Jackie Brown earned her a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress.
Grier played Louis Williams in ‘Mars Attacks!’ in 1996 and Carol in ‘Holy Smoke’ in 1999. Grier’s acting resume is extensive and lately she’s hit the television screen. She played Kit Porter on ‘The L Word’ for 5 years and appeared in ‘Smallville’ in 2010.
Richard Roundtree is known as a leading man in many Blaxploitation movies. His private detective role as John Shaft, in the movie ‘Shaft’ in 1971) earned him notoriety and sequels in ‘Shaft’s Big Score’ and ‘Shaft in Africa’. He even starred in a television series dedicated to the character.
Roundtree played John Shaft’s uncle in the film interpration of ‘Shaft’ in 2000 and more recently and the character Mr. Shaw on ‘Desperate Housewives’ in 2005. In 2011 he popped up on an episode of ‘The Mentalist,’ though he’s better known for roles in the movies ‘Se7en’ and ‘George of the Jungle.’
Football legend, Jim Brown, is not only known for being one of the greatest players in the NFL, but he was also an integral part of the Blaxploitation genre. Pictured here, Brown played Gunn in ‘Black Gunn’ (1972). The star of the movie, Brown plays an LA nightclub owner who’s after the mob.
Brown is known for his role as Robert Jefferson in ‘The Dirty Dozen’ (1967). After the ’70s, he appeared in numerous films like ‘Mars Attacks!’ alongside Pam Grier and ‘Any Given Sunday.’ But he wasn’t the only NFL star to hit the big screen during this decade.
Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson starred in ‘Black Caesar’ in 1973, paying homage to previous gangster movies. The former defensive back also hit the big screen in the ’70s with ‘Black Eye’ and ‘MASH.’ In 1973, Williamson posed nude for ‘Playgirl’ magazine.
Since his Blaxploitation days, Williamson has continued his acting career. He starred as Nick in ‘Vigilante’ in ’83 and was in ‘From Dust Til Dawn’ in 1996. A well balanced actor, Williamson’s appeared in films like ‘Starsky & Hutch’ and ‘Pushing Daisies.’ He’s also done work on the other side of the camera. He produced and directed ‘Mean Johnny Barrows’ and has gone on to produce over a dozen more films.
Judy Pace starred as Iris in ‘Cotton Comes to Harlem’ (1970). A prominent actress during the decade, Pace has come to be known as one of the most beautiful women to ever appear on screen.
After being dubbed the personification of Black Beauty in the ’70s, Pace’s career continued to thrive. She’s been in dozen’s of TV series from ‘Kung Fu’ to ‘Sanford and Son’ to ‘Bewitched.’
Nichelle Nichols popped up during the ’70s in ‘Truck Turner.’ Her career began before this decade, when she played Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek.’ She became one of the first black women to be featured in a strong role on a TV series. Her inter-racial kiss with William Shatner’s Captain Kirk character earned her even more notoriety.
Since her role- alongside Isaac Hayes in ‘Truck Turner,’ Nichols has continued to act. Recently she was on the series, ‘Heroes’ in the role of Nana Dawson. She’s also been in numerous ‘Star Trek’ spin-offs. Nichols has volunteered time and worked for NASA.
Billy Dee Williams starred in two Blaxploitation films, ‘The Take’ and ‘Hit!’ in the early ’70s. But, he’s most widely known for his role of Lando Calrissian in numerous ‘Star Wars’ installments. In the intense film, ‘Hit!,’ Williams plays a federal agent, out to destroy a drug ring. He is also known for his great work in Lady Sings the Blues and Mohgany starring Diana Ross.
Williams played Brady Lloyd in the 80′s series ‘Dynasty’, and has had recurring roles on ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Dairy of a Single Mom.’ He also recently made an appearance on ‘White Collar’.
Trina Parks popped up in the ’70s as an actress with a few roles. Most notably, she played Syreena in ‘Darktown Strutters’ and Thumper in ‘Diamonds are Forever.’
Parks hasn’t acted since the ’70s, but her claim to fame remains the fact that she was the first Black woman to be a Bond Girl. In 2002, she was part of the ‘Bond Girls Are Forever’ TV documentary.
Jim Kelly appeared in a handful of Blaxploitation films in the ’70s. They include ‘Black Belt Jones’ (top l.) and ‘Enter the Dragon’ (bottom l.). In ‘Black Belt,’ Kelly used his martial arts skills to play a Kung Fu expert who kicks apart the Mafia. He became a top martial arts film star of the early ’70s with his distinguishable, funky Afro hairstyle.
In ‘Enter the Dragon,’ Kelly appeared alongside Bruce Lee. But his roles since the Blaxploitation days have been limited. Kelly had a small role in the series, ‘Highway to Heaven’ and he popped up in ‘Ultimatum’ in 1994.
Antonio Fargas was a big name back in the Blaxploitation days. He had roles in ‘Cleopatra Jones’ and ‘Foxy Brown.’ Fargas became best known for his role as Huggy Bear in the ‘Starsky and Hutch’ series. He also appeared in two Wayans brothers parodies, ‘I’m Gonna Git You Sucka’ (1988) and ‘Don’t Be a Menance’ (1996). Lately he’s appeared in a recurring role, Doc, on ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ and he’s had one-off roles on series like ‘Brothers’ and ‘Numb3rs.’
Melvin ‘Block’ Van Peebles is a well known director from the ’70s, his most popular film being ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.’ This movie helped create the Blaxploitation genre.
Melvin Van Peebles is also an actor and has appeared as Elmo in ‘Black, White and Blues’ and on ‘All My Children’ as Melvin Woods. His son is actor Mario Van Peebles, started his acting career in ‘Sweet Sweetback’s.’
The younger Van Peebles appeared in ’The Cotton Club’ during the 1980′s. He is better known as Malcolm X from ‘Ali’ and Samuel Woods on ‘All My Children.’ In 2003, the father and son teamed up again to produce and star in ‘Baadasssss!’.
Source: Roseanne Salvatore and Partrick Montero at www.nydailynews.com
Stickin’ It To The Man
In the early 1900′s the term “The Man” was used to describe a boss figure. This term later began to be applied to anyone who hassled a group of people and eventually to anyone in a position of power.
In the 1960′s “The Man” began to see widespread usage by the Black Power Movement to describe the white oppressors that the movement was fighting against. A number of newspapers from the era used the term and it quickly gained currency, both among Black activists and those who struggled in solidarity with them.
During the 1970′s the term “The Man” became a part of the vernacular of the Blaxploitation film era. “The Man” referred to the police, the mob, the politicians and anyone who was white with power. In most cases “The Man” held the key to the destruction or redemption of Black characters in these films.
There were a number of white actors and actresses who got their start in Blaxploitation films and saw their careers take off after they made their Blaxploitation film debuts. The Museum of UnCut Funk presents a new visual DocuFunk short called “The Man” that pays homage to Blaxploitation’s “other” stars.
Without question, one of the most breathtaking beauties to emerge out of the 70′s ”Blaxploitation” era was actress Vonetta McGee. This lovely sister, born in San Francisco on January 14, 1945, possessed the complete package; looks, talent and determination which should have made her a marquee name in Hollywood. Instead, this tantalizing, tan, and talented lady found herself in in the land of Blaxploitation, where her some would considerable her talents were laid to waste.
Although the air was thick with civil and social issues, still, a beauty such as Vonetta’s would rarely go unnoticed. She was encouraged to participate in the Miss Bronze California beauty contest, where she walked away with the crown. A film career followed and Vonetta took off for Europe where she earned small roles in several low-budget movies. She returned to the States in 1969 and won a small part in the film The Lost Man, which starred Black screen icon, Sidney Poitier. The film got her some notice, but it would be three long years before she would get her first major movie role.
The Lost Man Movie Poster is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
In 1972, Vonetta was cast in the murder mystery Melinda, playing the title character. Although her part was small (she is murdered early on in the film), it was vital, earning her rave reviews from both the New York Times and Village Voice, which both proclaimed her “the most beautiful woman in film!”
Melinda Movie Poster is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Over the next few years, Vonetta’s resume would fill up with leading lady roles in “blaxploitation classics” such as Blacula, Shaft in Africa and Detroit 9000. She was working steadily but the roles were far from challenging. More often than not, she was cast as the supportive, understanding girlfriend, whose primary lot in life was to look cute and not get in the way of their super-macho male co-stars. Whereas Pam Grier, at the same time, was cementing herself as Hollywood’s first Black Super-Woman, Vonetta was still waiting for the meaty role which would make her a household name. Ironically, she had lost an opportunity to play a super-heroine herself when the lead role in the 1973 film Cleopatra Jones, which was written by her then boyfriend, Max (Julien of The Mack fame), went instead to super model Tamara Dobson.
Blacula, Shaft in Africa and Detroit 9000 Movie Posters are a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Throughout the period, Vonetta continued to work but had yet to see an A-Budget script. In 1975, that changed when Clint Eastwood chose her to star alongside him in The Eiger Sanction, which he also directed. It was a bit of cinematic history, being that it was the first time a Black actress had been cast as the female lead in a mainstream Hollywood film opposite a white actor. Sadly, the role gave Vonetta about as much to do as her “Blaxploitation” films had, leaving her still knocking at stardom’s door by Hollywood’s standards.
More of Vonette’s Filmography in Movie Poster Art Form:
1968: Faustina
1984: Repo Man
1990: To Sleep with Anger
Contributor: Keith Brooks
The Museum of UnCut Funk is shocked and sadden at the passing of Vonetta McGee on July 9, 2010.
Some would argue that if there was one actress that threatened Pam Grier’s reign as America’s Black glamour queen of the 70′s, it was the bewitching bronze beauty Judy Pace. A former Ebony Magazine model, Judy was a modern day Queen Neferteri, with sexy bedroom eyes, pouting full lips, all gloriously displayed on a petite chestnut brown frame. In color-conscious Hollywood, Judy became one of the first dark-skinned dramatic actresses to be recognized as a sex-symbol. The Daily Variety once referred to her as The most beautiful woman in Hollywood.
Southern California born and bred, Judy was one of five kids raised in a middle-class Los Angeles environment. After graduating from high school, she attended Los Angeles City College where she majored in sociology. She was enticed away from college with an offer to join the prestigious Ebony Fashion Fair. Judy harbored no aspirations for a film career, until one pratically fell into her lap. Director William Castle (House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler ) saw her pictures in Ebony and chose her for a part in his film 13 Frightened Girls. Upon completion of the film, young Judy was now smitten with the Hollywood bug. She wanted to be taken seriously so she began taking acting classes, and performing in L.A. theater. Small parts on television and films developed, leading up to Judy’s first major role in the 1968 film Three in the Cellar.
Judy followed up her success in Three in the Attic with another groundbreaking role, this time on the small screen. After losing out to Diahann Carroll for the role of Julia, Judy won a nice consolation prize, landing a part on the popular 60′s night time soap Payton Place. Judy played Vickie Fletcher televison’s first Black female antagonist. Judy’s Vicki character was bad to the bone, manipulative, a liar, Vicki basically ruined the lives of just about everyone she touched. When Payton Placewas finally canceled in 1969, Judy was offered the lead in a new, “hip” made-for-TV film called The Young Lawyers. With a very ”60′s,” theme, Judy plays one of three young lawyers who take on cases dealing with the poor and oppressed. The film would later be turned into a weekly series, with Judy reprising her role.
Judy continued to shake things up on the big screen when in 1970, she starred in the first Hollywood produced and financed film directed by a Black, Cotton Comes to Harlem. Directed by actor Ossie Davis, Cotton Comes to Harlem was derived from the writings of Black novelist Chester Himes. Given a main stream budget, the film became the first Black action block buster paving the way for what would later be deemed Hollywood’s blaxploitation film era of the early 1970′s. In many ways Cotton Comes to Harlem was very stereotypical in its depiction of Blacks. However it succeds because it is able to give off that certain “coolness” and vibe which are indicative of the Black experience in America. The film is centered on charlatan black leader Rev. Deke O’Malley (played by Calvin Lockhart), who plans to steal the money of poor Blacks with a bogus back to Africa movement. With an all-star cast that included Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Redd Foxx, Clevon Little and Lockhart, Judy more then held her own. Playing Iris, O’Malley’s sexy, hot-tempered girlfriend, Judy nearly steals the movie as she vamps, seduces, and even commits murder for the man she loves.
Cotton Come to Harlem Movie Poster is from the The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Cotton Comes to Harlem appeared to be the vehicle that would launch Judy into superstardom, but in reality, it would be her last major role. The blaxploitation era she helped to usher in created roles for Black male actors, but very few films gave Black women, with the exception of Pam Grier, much to do. Hollywood completely missed the message of Cotton Comes to Harlem by assuming that Black audiences wanted shoot-em-up action flicks with Black super-heroes. In a nutshell, Black audiences wanted the same thing white audiences wanted, good movies.
Movie Poster art from Judy Pace Filmography:
1970: Three In The Cellar
1973: Cool Breeze
1972: Frogs
1973: The Slams
Cool Breeze and The Slams Movie Posters are from The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Contributor: Keith Brooks
Until recently, there were few Black actors in a ever shrinking white-dominated society who were not faced with difficult choices and obstacles. The Bahamas-born Calvin Lockhart, who has died in 2007 was no exception. The handsome, charismatic Lockhart, who had classical acting training and who spoke French, German, Italian and Spanish, was mainly forced to take roles that he disliked.
At the start of the 1970s, more than two decades after the birth of the modern civil rights movement, Black Americans wanted a more positive media image of themselves. However, hollywood had other intentions so Blacks had to settle for broad comedies and slick thrillers, labelled “blaxploitation”. These films became more formulaic as the 1970s progressed – most of them were either “private detective takes on the mob” or “dealer becomes king of the pimps”.
Nevertheless, whatever the quality of the blaxploitation movies, they were directed by Black directors and starred Black actors, playing characters not seen from a white perspective. Lockhart appeared in one of the first Black – as distinct from noir – thrillers, Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), directed by Ossie Davis. He was the swindler-cum-preacher Reverend Deke O’Malley, who has conned $87,000 from the “good folks” for his phony Back to Africa movement.
Lockhart played suave gangsters called Silky Slim and Biggie Smalls respectively in Sidney Poitier’s Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let’s Do It Again (1975). At least, Melinda (1972), directed by Hugh Robertson, the first Black editor to be nominated for an Oscar, gave Lockhart the chance to play a super-hero, an egotistic disc jockey who has to take on the mobsters who had murdered his girlfriend.
In the same year, Lockhart was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, where he appeared in several plays, notably Buzz Goodbody’s production of Titus Andronicus in which, as Aaron the Moor, he asks “is Black so base a hue?” and launches into a defence of his colour.
Lockhart had already spent almost five years in England (1965-1970), where he had appeared in TV dramas, such as the Wednesday Play and five British films in 1968: A Dandy in Aspic, The Mercenaries, Only When I Larf, Nobody Runs Forever and Joanna. In the last, directed by Mike Sarne, which also featured Donald Sutherland as a dying English aristocrat, Lockhart, as a nightclub owner was one of the first actors to dent a cinematic taboo with a Black-white love scene with the heroine, Genevieve Waite.
Sarne then cast him as the effete Irving Amadeus in the disastrous Myra Breckinridge (1970), and he played a pimp in John Boorman’s Leo the Last (1970), before returning to the US to star in Halls of Anger, (also 1970). The setting of this was an all-Black blackboard jungle which, because of the national integration plan, has to accept 60 white students who suffer the kind of racism that usually affects black people. However, Lockhart, cast as a teacher, solves all the school’s problems by his liberal approach. Despite the theme he disliked making the film and walked off the set more than once.
Lockhart, born Bert Cooper, the youngest of eight children, had left the Bahamas aged 19 to study engineering at New York, but became involved in a YMCA theatre group, and studied with the legendary drama coach Uta Hagen. He made his Broadway debut, taking over from Billy Dee Williams, in Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, in the role of the sailor who gets the white girl (Joan Plowright) pregnant.
During his second stay in England, Lockhart was given one of his best film roles in The Beast Must Die (1974) as the millionaire owner of a country estate where he has gathered a number of people, one of whom he hopes to reveal as a werewolf. It was enjoyable, camp nonsense, but it did feature a rich, successful Black man, whose colour is never mentioned, a rare phenomenon in films of the early 1970s. Another potentially interesting part was in The Baron (1977), where Lockhart played a struggling Black film-maker who turns to the underworld to raise money. However, the film descended into many of the cliches of blaxploitation gangster movies.
A couple of years later, Lockhart suffered a heart attack brought on by the news that his son from a former marriage (he was married four times) had lost the use of his legs from jumping under a train. But he returned to work, albeit in a minor capacity. He was in seven episodes as Jonathan Lake in TV’s Dynasty (1985-86), was the head of a Jamaican voodoo-gang in Predator 2 (1990), and had small roles in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990) and Twin Peaks (1992).
In 1979, Calvin met Jennifer Miles in New York, and they had a son in 1981. They married in 2006: she survives him, as do his other two sons and a daughter.
Contributor: Ronald Bergan
* Cotton Comes to Harlem, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do it Again, The Beast Must Die and Melinda Movie Posters are a part of the Collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk.
The Museum of UnCut Funk celebrates the movie poster art of John Solie. John’s legendary skill for depicting “dead-on likenesses” of famous people has kept him in demand by major Hollywood movie studios, television networks, book publishers and magazine editors. He has created over two hundred movie posters and painted Blaxploitation movie stars such as Trina Parks, Billy Dee Williams, Jeanne Bell, Richard Roundtree and Jimmy Cliff for movies such as DarkTown Strutters, Blast, TNT Jackson, the Shaft sequals and The Harder They Come.
John’s work spans much farther than Hollywood. As a talented sculptor as well as illustrator and portrait artist, John was commissioned by CBS Television Network to create a bronze sculpture of “the most trusted man in America,” Mr. Walter Cronkite, which is on display in the lobby of the CBS Building in New York.
Solie is a proud member of the NASA Art Team and has paintings on display at the Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center.
The Museum of UnCut Funk salutes John Solie and his many achievements and his contributions to one of the most exciting times in Black film history.
Thalmus Rasulala was born Jack Chowder on November 15th, 1939. One of the many Black actors from the 1970’s and beyond who never got his rightful due, Thalmus will always be at the top of my list of great performers. He amassed a wealth of television, film, directing and other credits, including winning a Theatre World Award for his role in the Broadway production of “Hello Dolly” with Pearl Bailey and an all Black cast.
Thalmus was a man among men, known for his roles from the height of the 1970’s Blaxploitation explosion. In 1972, he portrayed Dr. Gordon Thomas in Blacula, a widely successful film that mixed horror and gore with the excitement of blaxploitation.
In 1972, he also played Sidney Lord James, the lead character in Cool Breeze, a remake of The Asphalt Jungle with an all Black cast. In this film, James is an ex-convict who plans to steal $3 million worth of jewels, sell them, and use the money to start a bank to back Black businesses. He is assisted by two pals, his half-brother and a preacher who also works as a thief. The operation is ultimately backed by a man who cheats on his wheelchair-bound wife with a sexy woman.
In 1973, Thalmus starred in one of the best classic pimp movies ever, Willie Dynamite. In this movie Thalmus played Robert Daniels, the D.A.
The Slams is a violent prison drama from 1973, in which an imprisoned criminal finds himself flooded with offers to spring him if he reveals the secret location of the $1.5 million he stole from the mob before he went to jail. Thalmus is credited as the Assistant Director on this flick.
In 1975, Thalmus played the role of Charlie the grocery store owner in Cornbread, Earl and Me. Cornbread, a Black kid who strives to escape his ghetto surroundings. He does so by becoming a high school basketball star–and the idol of the other youngsters in his community. On the verge of starting college on a scholarship, Cornbread is mistakenly killed by a police officer.
In 1975, Thalmus also starred opposite Pam Grier in Friday Foster. Thalmus plays Blake Tarr, the richest Black man in America. Grier plays Friday Foster, a freelance photographer with an insatiable thirst for adventure. In her assignment to photograph Tarr, Friday unearths a conspiracy to assassinate him.
In 1975, Thalmus starred again with Pam Grier and Fred Williamson in Bucktown. This film is about a man named Duke Johnson, played by Williamson, who moves to a small and racially divided southern town where his nightclub owning brother was murdered after he refused to pay crooked white cops for “protection.” When he is threatened himself, he calls in some of his buddies, one of whom is played by Thalmus named Roy, to help him. When the friends decide to take over the town, Johnson becomes a one-man army on a mission to oust the baddies.
In 1975, Thalmus starred with Dean Martin in Mr. Ricco. In this obscure drama, Martin, a San Francisco lawyer defends Black militant Frankie Steele, played by Thamlus, who is on trial for murdering a cop.
He was also a special guest on the 1975 episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ hosted by Richard Pryor. They did a great ‘Exorcist’ parody with Thalmus as Father Merrin and Pryor as Father Karras. The priests dished out some intense discipline to Regan (played by Laraine Newman) when she started bad mouthing their mammas.
In 1976, Thalmus’ went on to land a role in Alex Haley’s Roots as Kunta Kinte’s father Omro. In 1977, he played Dr. Alvarez in Killer On Board with Patty Duke, George Hamilton and Jane Seymour.
Other notable film and television credits include:
1974 – The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman – Ned
1976 – 1977 – Played Bill Thomas (Mabel King’s ex) on several episodes of ‘What’s Happening?
1976 – Adios Amigo – Noah
1978 – The President’s Mistress – Lt. Gordon
1979 – The Bermuda Triangle – Coast Guard Officer
1981 – The Sophisticated Gents – Snake
1884 – The Jerk Too – Crossroads
1986 – The Defiant Ones - Fred
1986 – The Boss’ Wife – Barney
1988 – Steven Segal’s Above the Law – Deputy Supt. Crowder
1989 – The Preppie Murder
1989 – Trekkies probably recognize him as Capt. Donald Varley on the ‘Contagion’ episode of ‘The Next Generation.
1990 – Lambada – Wesley Wilson
1991 – He was the police commissioner in New Jack City, and played Jack Chowder
His final film role was in 1992 as General Afir in Mom and Dad Save the World, which was released posthumously
Thalmus Rashlala died of a massive heart attack in Albuquerque NM on October 9th 1991. He was only 52. He was survived by his wife Sherilyn and four children.
Source: Wikipedia, IMDB, Answers.com and Racks and Razors

The Museum of UnCut Funk salutes John E. DeCoste aka Terry Carter. Terry was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 16, 1928, the only child of William and Mercedes DeCoste. Terry’s mother was a native of the Dominican Republic. His father was American born, of Argentine and African-American descent. Terry’s parents taught him Spanish as well as English as a child. Growing up in a bilingual, bicultural household, in a predominantly Italian, Williamsburg neighborhood, next door to a Jewish synagogue, was an early influence in developing Terry’s appreciation for cultural diversity.

Terry remembers walking his first picket line at age 8, at his father’s side, in a demonstration to support demands for better conditions for recipients of “home relief”, as the welfare program of the day was called. 
At the age of 9, Terry acted for the very first time: in the role of the 15th century Portuguese explorer “Vasco da Gama” in a historical play about the discovery of America, in auditorium of his elementary school, P.S. 88 in Brooklyn.
When Terry graduated Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1946, he enlisted in the merchant marine to see the world. As a crew member on the SS Marine Marlin, he sailed to Germany and walked among the utter devastation that was once the proud port of Bremerhaven. The merchant ship took on as passengers displaced persons, and former prisoners of war and concentration camp survivors and transported them from Germany and other European ports to Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil. After six months as a seaman, Terry took a job as a mail clerk at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
As part of the museum’s program, the museum film department exhibited a seemingly endless film festival of avant-garde independent and foreign films. Terry tried to see every one of them. The year that he spent at the museum altered his life course: he became an ardent devotee of the arts and an avid film buff. He made acquaintances with many young painters and writers, some of whom later became famous.
After that year, Terry went off to Northeastern University in Boston to study pre-law. While there, he worked weekends as a “piano player” with a jazz combo, drawing on his experience of classical piano study from age 8 through 15. They played at night clubs, and for weddings and bar mitzvahs. In the 1950s, while studying law at St. John’s University Law School in New York, he met the well-known theatre actors Howard Da Silva and Morris Carnovsky. They convinced him to consider the pursuit of a career as an actor.
Realizing that drama training would help him in the courtroom, he studied law by day and acting by night. His first drama teacher was Howard Da Silva, who offered him a scholarship at Actors Mobile Theatre, Da Silva’s acting school. Terry took classes in Method Acting. It wasn’t long before he lost interest in the prospects of a law career: After his second year at law school, he dropped out and began to study acting full-time. As a young teenager, Terry had already taken on the nickname “Terry”, after the adventurous young hero of the popular newspaper cartoon Terry & the Pirates by Milton Caniff. Terry kept on using the name through high school. When he got into show business, he got tired of the white people asking him how come he had a foreign-sounding last name, since most African Americans they knew had Anglo-Saxon surnames such as Wilson, Jones or Jackson. So, Terry switched from “DeCoste” to the more English-sounding “Carter” for his professional name, as did many actors of that era who had foreign-sounding names (e.g. Kirk Douglas, John Garfield and Jack Benny), and has used it ever since. 
Terry’s acting career started in 1952 with a leading role in Edward Chodorov’s Decision, at the Greenwich Mews Theatre in Greenwich Village. He became a member of the theatre group and the following year, in Les Pine’s play, Monday’s Heroes, he played the part of a teenager in a Jewish family, with no special makeup. It was an early experiment in non-traditional casting. Terry studied with Herbert Berghof, Uta Hagen and Stella Adler in those years. Terry landed his first Broadway role in 1954, as the male lead opposite Eartha Kitt, in the play Mrs. Patterson. The company toured major cities before opening on Broadway at the National Theater, for a run of several months. Later, he played the part of “Howard” in the revival of E.Y. Harburg’s Finian’s Rainbow (1955) at the City Center Theater.
In 1956, Terry was one of the first black actors on equal-footing as a regular on a TV sitcom series, portraying “Private Sugarman” on Phil Silvers’ Sgt. Bilko (aka You’ll Never get Rich aka The Phil Silvers Show). The series lasted four years, and was the model for subsequent comedy series about the military, such as Hogan’s Heroes and McHale’s Navy. In 1957, Terry played the title role in “Bob Thomas of the Philadelphia Inquirer”, part of The Big Story series which focused on the outstanding achievements of journalists. A non-smoker, Terry had to learn to smoke in order to play key scenes in the teleplay.
The series sponsor was Pall Mall cigarettes, and the show was broadcast live, so it was crucial that Terry smoke convincingly. He carried it off, but he has never smoked another cigarette since. 
In 1962, Terry returned to Europe for an extended stay. He lived some months in Paris and then spent a year in Denmark before moving onto Rome. In Rome, he learned to speak fluent Italian. Terry fell in love with his language tutor, the Italo-Yugoslavian Anna Scratuglia. In the fall of 1963, Terry returned to the United States. In 1964, he asked Anna to join him in New York. They married and later had two children: a son, Miguel, and a daughter, Melinda, both of whom were raised speaking Italian as well as English.
In 1965, walking up Broadway one day, Terry ran into a producer friend who suggested that he do a screen test for the position of TV newscaster. Although he had no journalistic background, he drew upon his 13 years of experience as an actor and landed the job: Terry Carter became world’s first black TV anchor newscaster, for WBZ-TV Eyewitness News in Boston, the Westinghouse flagship station, for the next 3 years. 
In addition to covering crime stories and “hard” news, Terry became Boston TV’s first opening night drama and movie critic. Even though Terry was now a TV newscaster, he still maintained his relationship with the William Morris Agency.
While summering in Rome in 1967, Terry was sent by the Morris Agency to meet Italian producer Dino deLaurentiis and avant-garde art film director Tinto Brass, who asked him to star in his movie, Nerosubianco (aka Black on White or Attraction), set in London. Since he was still a TV newscaster, Terry had to request a 13-week leave of absence from his news anchor job, in order to work in the film. Although it was an unprecedented request for Westinghouse, he got it. Before long, he realized that his first love was acting. Once his three-year newsroom contract was up, he packed his bags and he and his wife moved to Hollywood, in search of greener pastures.
His first important role on arriving in Hollywood in 1968 was as a detective named “Jaffie”, in the made-for-TV movie Company of Killers, in which he worked alongside Van Johnson and Ray Milland. From 1968-71, singer Diahann Carroll became the first Black female to star in her own TV sitcom series, Julia. Terry had a recurring role as Julia’s boyfriend “Bert”.
 
In December 1969, only 5 months after Neil Armstrong takes his first step onto the Moon, Terry played the role of “Mike Carter”, the first Black astronaut to the Moon, in The Bold Ones: The New Doctors. Many of the scenes were filmed in the actual Apollo Spacecraft.
During the 1970’s Terry starred in several Blaxploitation films, including the 1974 film Foxy Brown with Pam Grier. He also starred in Abby 1974, and Brother on the run 1973. In 1975, Terry founded Meta-4 Productions, Inc., a small Los Angeles production company, through which he produced and directed more than one hundred industrial and educational films and videos for public broadcasting and for virtually every agency of the federal government. Terry also formed the Council for Positive Images, Inc., (CPI) a non-profit organization of which he is still president, in 1979, dedicated to enhancing intercultural and interethnic understanding through audiovisual communication. Under the Council’s auspices, he has produced and directed award-winning dramatic and documentary programs for PBS, focusing on cultural and historical topics.
In 1978, McCloud’s creator Glen Larson and producer Leslie Stevens were asked to make a major film for television in response to the success of the Star Wars trilogy of George Lucas. 
Star Wars special effects specialist John Dykstra and his team were brought in to start on the models for what would become the most expensive film ever made for television: Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World. The cast was a mix of young, still relatively unknown actors like Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict, combined with legends as Bonanza’s Lorne Greene, Ray Milland, Lew Ayres and Alfred Hyde-White.
Terry, who’d just worked with creator Glen Larson and producer Leslie Steven on McCloud for 7 years, was selected for the part of “Lt. Boomer”. As chance would have it, Terry broke his ankle roller skating with his daughter a shortly before Galactica started filming. The part of “Lt. Boomer” was then re-cast and given to young actor Herb Jefferson, Jr. But the 7 years on McCloud must have made an impression on its producers, because Terry was later offered another part in the series: that of “Colonel Tigh”, the right hand of “Commander Adama”. Still a warrior rather then a diplomat, “Tigh” was often at odds with “Adama” on his decisions. It was a part Terry found even more challenging and satisfying to play Since Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World cost an enormous amount of money to make it was quickly decided to turn it into a TV series. A combination of multiple last-minute script revisions, the costs of $1 million per episode and a bad TV time slot made the network decide to cancel the show after just one season.
Terry made a reprise in 1999 and played the part of now “President Tigh” in Richard Hatch’ trailer Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming, an attempt to revive the original series. In 1980, Terry was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, where he served two terms. In 1983,
Terry was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He served on the Documentary Committee and the Foreign Films Committee for the Oscars. That same year, Northeastern University awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications. In 1985, Terry received a Los Angeles Emmy Award for K*I*D*S, a TV miniseries he created, produced and directed. K*I*D*S was the story of a multi-racial group of teenagers struggling to cope with some of the adult-sized conflicts confronting youth in America today. In 1987-88, Terry produced and directed JazzMasters, a series of video portraits of twelve great jazz artists for TV2 Denmark. The series featured interviews and performances of Chet Baker, Kenny Drew, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Carmen McRae, James Moody, Niels-Henning, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, and Randy Weston. In 1988, Terry produced and directed the award-winning, Emmy-nominated TV musical documentary A Duke Named Ellington about the life and work of pianist, composer, bandleader and jazz legend Duke Ellington. Making this documentary required Terry to spend a lot of time in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Duke’s son Mercer lived.
In 1991, Terry was sent to China by the USIA (United States Information Agency), on a cultural lecture tour. He visited then-British Hong Kong, and Beijing, Chengdu, Chong Ching, Guang Zhou and Shen Yang, meeting Chinese filmmakers and students, and lecturing on his experience as a filmmaker in the U.S. In 1992, Terry started research and development on what is to become a 90-minute documentary for PBS about African-American anthropologist, dancer, and choreographer Katherine Dunham, whose show-stopping performances greatly influenced the evolution of American dance theatre. Terry’s biopic Katherine Dunham: Dancing with Life is about Ms. Dunham’s extraordinary life and work. In 1998, Terry appeared in the Swedish international thriller movie and TV miniseries Hamilton, in which he played “Texas Slim” head of the CIA.
Filmography: Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming (1999)
Trailer - Hamilton (1998)
Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a World (1978)
Abby (1974)
Benji (1974)
Foxy Brown (1974)
Brother on the Run (1973)
Nerosublanco (1969)
Parrish (1961)
Source: Wikipedia, IMBD and Terry Carter.net
Actress and producer Sheila Elaine Frazier was born on November 13, 1948 in the Bronx, New York to Dorothy Dennis and Eugene Cole Frazier. Frazier grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City until the age of ten, when she moved with her mother to Englewood, New Jersey.
There, her neighbors included stars and future stars like Clyde McPhatter, Van McCoy, The Isley Brothers and Dolly and Jackie McClean. Frazier attended P.S. 97 in New York City and Liberty School in New Jersey. At Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School, her classmates were Margaret Travolta and Hazel Smith.
Inspired by Susan Hayward’s performance in the film, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, Frazier longed to be an actress, but was hampered by a speech impediment. Graduating in 1966, Frazier moved to New York City where she served in various clerical positions with Allied Stores, Boutique magazine and the United Negro College Fund.
Recruited by the noted Negro Ensemble Company photographer Bert Andrews, Frazier became acquainted with the New York arts community. She studied acting at HB (Herbert Berkoff) Studios in New York under the direction of Bill Hickey and Uta Hagen. Then, actor Richard Roundtree encouraged her to take acting
lessons from Gilbert Moses at the Negro Ensemble Company which led to additional training with Dick Anthony Williams at the New Federal Theatre. Frazier, then working for a real estate company, had done some industrial films and commercials before Roundtree helped her get anauditionwith Gordon Parks, who was casting for a new film, Super Fly. In the film, Frazier plays the sultry girlfriend, “Georgia,” of the hustler, “Priest,” portrayed by Ron O’Neal. The tremendous box office success of Super Fly and her instant street recognition surprised Frazier, as she was and still is admired as an iconic beauty in the black community. She appeared in Super Fly T.N.T., the sequel to Super Fly and other black genre films of the 1970s including Three The Hard Way with Jim Brown and The Super Cops.
Frazier appeared in a number of film but by 1980, Frazier was hosting a community affairs show on KNXT-TV in Los Angeles. In 1982, she was hired as a story editor by Richard Pryor’s Indigo Productions. She was coordinating producer for Essence magazine’s television series in 1985 and produced BET’s Live from L.A. with Tonya Hart. Frazier worked with the talent on BET’s Screen Scene from 1992 to 1999 and headed up the Talent Department for BET for thirteen years.
As founding director of Frazier Multimedia Group in 2003, Frazier provides talent grooming and field production. Her 2008 documentary film on African American intergenerational wisdom transmission is entitled You Don’t Get Old by Being A Fool.
Frazier lives in Los Angeles. She is married to John Atchison and has two sons. Her oldest son is music producer, Derek McKeith.
New York Times Interview 2007
Sheila Frazier is a star of the 1972 film “Super Fly.” She discussed how her acting career came about with the column’s author, Devan Sipher.
Did you plan to be an actress from a young age?
Sheila Frazier I always loved acting, but I grew up as a stutterer. I never enjoyed standing up in front of people saying anything, because I could barely speak. In elementary school, a teacher said he would help me. He made me get up and recite a story I wrote in front of sixth-grade assembly. He made an announcement: “I don’t want any laughter. Sheila’s a stutterer. I don’t want any laughter.” It was the most painful thing I ever went through in my life. I didn’t want to go to college. The idea of having to speak publicly in any classroom just horrified me.
[At 17, she left her home in Englewood, N.J., and moved to New York, where she lived with her godmother and worked as a secretary.]
How did you end up in movies?
S.F. One day I was on the train going home, and this guy approached me saying: “Have you ever thought about modeling? I would really like to take some photographs of you.”
And you trusted him?
S.F. I was naïve. Something struck me as legitimate. I went to his studio, and his boss was a well-known photographer, Bert Andrews. Bert chronicled black theater on Broadway and became a lifelong friend of mine. We took pictures, and I did some runway modeling. But I never liked it. Also did some print work. Never really liked that either. Too much focus of attention on me. As a stutterer, it becomes difficult if there is that intensive focus on you. Then I met Richard Roundtree. He had just come off the road doing “The Great White Hope.” I said I always wanted to act, but I had this stutter.
[Mr. Roundtree suggested she audition to study at the Negro Ensemble Company.]
S.F. I prepared this monologue. I remember standing there. I was petrified. I was talking to myself like “What are you doing?” But I remembered Richard said to focus on the piece. When I started the piece a part of me stood outside of myself, and I didn’t stutter. I didn’t stutter once. It amazed me. I realized there’s something in the brain you can switch off. You can choose to be somebody else. I chose not to be a stutterer.
Five months after being with the Negro Ensemble Company I read that Gordon Parks Jr. was directing his first film, called “Super Fly.” I ran into Richard and asked if he could help me get an audition.
[And he did.]
S.F. All these great stars I had seen on television and in movies were there. I remember thinking they’re not even going to look at me. Richard said, “Sheila, when you walk in there, you have to have the attitude that no one else can do the job but you.” I put my feet up on the director’s desk and said, “You can send everyone else home, because no one else can do this job but me.”
As a religious woman, how did you handle working in the film industry?
S.F. When I first came to Hollywood I kept that very private. I thought if anyone saw me reading the Bible on the set they would tease me. I didn’t want to be teased.
I was working on a film with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, and I was in the makeup trailer and I was reading my Bible. The makeup artist came in, and I tried to hide it. She said “Why are you hiding it?” She taught me never to hide it. But I wasn’t there preaching. I wasn’t trying to influence anyone on what was right or wrong for their lives. This is just where I got strength.
Film Credits:
“Super Fly” (1972)
“Super Fly T.N.T.” (1973)
“Three the Hard Way” (1974)
“California Suite” (1978)
“The Hitter” (1979)
“Two of a Kind” (1983)
“All About You” (2001)
“The Last Stand” (2006)
Television Guest Appearances:
“Starsky and Hutch” (1977)
“King” (1978) television mini-series
“Lou Grant” (1981)
“Dallas” (1982)
“The Love Boat” (1982)
“Gimme a Break!”(1985)
“Magnum, P.I.” (1985)
“Cagney & Lacey” (1986)
“227″ (1988)
“The West Wing” (1999)
“The District” (2000)
“Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service” (2004)
My Son - An interview with Kam Williams
DeSuperfly’s girlfriend in the 1972 film is none other than the beautiful and talented Sheila Frazier. She came out recently to NYC’s Sweet Rhythm with her son Derek McKeith, to help congratulate him and spread the word about his new release.
In an interview with Kam Williams she spoke of her son saying, “Talk about talent! I’m really proud of Derek. He’s a music performer, writer and producer. He has a band with a unique sound. Whenever I’ve had the opportunity to see him perform I can only think, ‘Wow, he’s better than I could have ever been.’ It seems that his audiences think so, too.”
Sources: The New York Times, Bean Soup Times and Ask.com
Frankie The Artist: Frankie Crocker, the New York radio personality imbued the R&B format with a wide-reaching musical palette that includes music from just about every genre.
Born in Buffalo, NY, Crocker began his radio career at Williamsville, NY, station WUFO, while studying Pre law. His other stints include other N.Y. radio stations WWRL and Top 40 station WMCA. Becoming a program director at WBLS-FM and WLIB-AM in the early 1970s, Crocker began to shape an innovative and influential radio format that would become known as progressive R&B while garnering the top spot in the ratings. His timing was perfect as a new kind of R&B station was beginning to spring up on the FM dial around the country.
Crocker’s format emphasized less jive talk, a cross blend of jazz, pop/rock, sophisticated soul, funk, and R&B. The sound is similar to the sound of the smooth jazz stations of the late ’90′s.
The Venus Flytrap character on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinatti bears a slight resemblance to Crocker’s sound and flamboyant style. The term urban contemporary was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s.
Frankie the Actor: In addition to radio, Crocker was one of VH1′s original VJs and hosted both NBC’s Friday Night Videos and Solid Gold. As his formidable reputation grew, Crocker was offered different opportunities. He appeared in the movies Cleopatra Jones, Five on the Black Hand Side, Darktown Strutters, Jimi Hendrix, Death Drug, Taking Heat and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
He released two disco oriented albums on Casablanca Records as Frankie Crocker’s Heart and Soul Orchestra — The Heart and Soul Orchestra, Love in C Minor, and Disco Suite Symphony No. 1 in Rhythm and Excellence.
Later he hosted NBC TV’s Friday Night Videos, was one of the first video DJs on cable channel VH1, had his own syndicated radio show, Classic Soul Countdown.
The Intro on the Ike & Tina Turner Heart and Soul series was done by DJ Frankie Crocker And MC Eddie Burkes.
FrankieFrankie Crocker, Dead Road, Central Park, circa 1979
Malcolm Pinckney / New York City Parks Photo Archive
In the late 1970s, the Dead Road (located to the west of the Central Park Bandshell) became the venue for spontaneous disco roller dancing.
The legendary Frankie Crocker, WBLS disc jockey and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, is captured at this “scene.”
To this day, the locale draws large weekend crowds, including many foreign tourists eager to see the latest moves of hip New Yorkers.
Sources: FrankieCocker.net, Wikipedia, Soul Patrol, Power House Radio, You Tube.
Above is a short called “Trek Turner”, a remix of the cartoon version featuring Lieutenant Uhura from the Star Trek animated series, dubbed over with Nichelle Nichols’ dialogue from the 1974 blaxploitation film “Truck Turner”. Below is Nichols delivering the same dialogue in “Truck Turner”. Animated or live action, that’s one Bad Ass Bitch!
Nichelle Nichols was born in Robbins, Illinois, near Chicago. Her father was both the town mayor of Robbins and its chief magistrate. She has studied in Chicago as well as New York and Los Angeles. During her time in New York, Nichelle appeared at the famous Blue Angel and Playboy Clubs as a singer. She also appeared in the role of Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of “Carmen Jones.”
She has twice been nominated for the Sara Siddon Award as best actress and is an accomplished dancer and singer. Her first Siddon nomination was for her portrayal of Hazel Sharp in “Kicks and Co.,” and the second for her performance in “The Blacks.”
Nichelle toured the United States, Canada and Europe as a singer with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands. On the West Coast, she appeared in “Roar of the Grease Paint, Smell of the Crowd,” “For My People,” and garnered high praise for her performance in the James Baldwin play, “Blues for Mr. Charlie.”
Prior to being cast as Lt. Uhura in Star Trek, Nichelle had starred on Gene Roddenberry’s first series, The Lieutenant.
Nichelle started as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek in 1966. At the end of Star Trek’s first season, Nichelle was thinking seriously of leaving the show, but a chance and moving meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. changed her mind. He told her she couldn’t give up…she was a vital role model for young Black women in America. Needless to say, Nichelle stayed with the show and has appeared in first six Star Trek movies.
She also provided the voice for Lt. Uhura on the Star Trek animated series in 1974-75.
Prior to starring in Star Trek, Nichelle appeared in films like, “Mister Buddwing,” “Made in Paris,” “Porgy and Bess,” and “Doctor, You’ve Got to be Kidding!” After the cancellation of Star Trek, Nichols played Dorinda in “Truck Turner” in 1974.
Turning her sights toward her music, Nichelle released a single, “Shoop Shoop,” on 20th Century Records and often sings at her convention appearances. She has also released an album, “Dark Side of the Moon,” which includes the song she wrote in tribute to Gene Roddenberry, “Gene.” Nichelle sang the song at Roddenberry’s memorial service.
Always interested in space travel, Nichelle flew aboard the C-141 Astronomy Observatory, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn, on an eight hour, high altitude mission. She was also special guest at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena on July 17, 1976 to view the Viking probe’s soft landing on Mars. Along with the other cast members from the original Star Trek, Nichelle attended the christening of the first space shuttle, Enterprise, at Cape Canaveral. Nichelle also spends much time recruiting minorities for NASA. Those recruited include Dr. Mae Jemison, the first American female astronaut and United States Air Force Col. Guion Bluford, the first Black astronaut, as well as Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ronald McNair, who both flew successful missions during the space shuttle program before their deaths in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
A few years ago, Nichelle toured in a one-woman play where she portrayed many famous black female singers of the 20th century. Some of her hobbies are oil painting, designing her own clothes, reading science fiction and sculpting. She has also acted as spokesperson for her favorite charity, “The Kwanzaa Foundation.” Her biography, “Beyond Uhura,” was published in 1994.
Nichelle has two projects in production, David and The Bitter Earth, scheduled to be released in late 2009.
It All Started With The Comic Strip…
The Friday Foster comic strip debuted on January 18, 1970 and ran until 1974. Friday Foster was the first mainstream syndicated comic strip to feature a Black woman in the lead role. Prior to this, other than a handful of broadly stereotyped caricatures from the industry’s very early days and a few series aimed solely at Black newspapers, no American comic strip had ever borne the name of a Black lead character.
Friday Foster was a former fashion model who became an assistant to a world-famous photographer, and the strip was about her comings and goings in the modeling and magazine / publishing worlds.
The strip was created by writer Jim Lawrence, illustrated by artist Jorje Longeron, and syndicated by The Chicago Tribune Syndicate to twenty-five newspapers across the country.
Which Then Became A Comic Book…
In 1972, Dell created a one-of-a-kind Friday Foster comic book edition, as no further comics were issued for this character. In the comic, Friday Foster is an assistant to world famous fashion photographer Shawn North.
Then Came The Movie…and Pam Grier
In 1975, Friday Foster was made into a feature film. The film was written and directed by Arthur Marks and starred Pam Grier in the lead role. Yaphet Kotto and Eartha Kitt also co-starred.
The Plot:
Friday Foster is a magazine photographer who refuses to heed her boss’s admonitions against becoming involved in the stories to which she is assigned. After witnessing an assassination attempt on the nation’s wealthiest Black and then seeing her best friend murdered, Friday finds herself targeted for death. She teams up with private detective Colt Hawkins to investigate, and soon, the two are hot on the trail of plot to eliminate the country’s Black political leadership.
In addition to the standard blaxploitation plot elements, the film also dealt with the themes of the power and importance of Black political unity and the potential threat posed not only by the perceived white power structure, but also by those Blacks willing to betray that goal in search of reward from that establishment.
Tagline: Wham! Bam! Here comes Pam!
And Now Finally There Is The Doll…
In 2009, Robert Tonner created a doll collection based on the Friday Foster comic character. The collection includes five different versions of Friday Foster, marking the first time that Robert Tonner has explored the style of the 1970s in a primary fashion doll collection.
Palestine native Ralph Bakshi was raised in Brooklyn, New York. A talented artist, Bakshi worked at the Terrytoons animation studio, directed episodes of Deputy Dawg and James Hound and worked on the Hekyll and Jekyll and Mighty Mouse cartoons. In 1965, he put together The Mighty Heroes “superhero” TV cartoon series, featuring some of the most ridiculous superguys in history: Tornado Man, Cuckooman, Ropeman, Strongman, and Diaper Baby. Bakshi’s also worked on the Spiderman series.
Bakski is best known, however, for his work on several animated films that featured Black characters. In 1972, Bakshi produced his first theatrical animated feature, a down-and-dirty X-rated adaptation of Robert Crumb’s “underground” comic strip Fritz the Cat. While Crumb hated the finished product, Fritz proved to be a success on the midnight-movie market.
Bakshi’s next feature, Heavy Traffic, was even more outrageous than Fritz; many cartoon aficionados consider this nihilistic, highly scatological tale of a young New York artist’s drawing-board fantasies to be Bakshi’s finest work.
His next was Coonskin (1975), a savage attack on Hollywood racial stereotypes — so savage, in fact, that the film was picketed by CORE and Bakshi was accused of being a racist himself.
Next came Hey, Good Lookin’, a nostalgic glance at 1950s street gangs, which was completed in 1975, but held back from release until 1982.
Coonskin
A multi-layered satire of race relations in America. America is represented as a volumuous white women in the film.
Sampson (Barry White) and the Preacherman (Charles Gordone) rush to help their friend, Randy (Philip Michael Thomas) escape from prison, but are stopped by a roadblock and wind up in a shootout with the police. While waiting for them, Randy unwillingly listens to fellow escapee Pappy (Scatman Crothers), as he begins to tell Randy a story about “three guys [I used to know] just like you and your friends”. Pappy’s story is told in animation set against live-action background photos and footage.
Brother Rabbit, Preacher Fox and Brother Bear
Brother Rabbit (voice of Thomas), Brother Bear (voice of White), and Preacher Fox (voice of Gordone) decide to pack up and leave their southern settings after the bank mortgages their home and sells it to a man who turns it into a brothel. Arriving in Harlem, Rabbit, Bear, and Fox find that it isn’t all that it’s made out to be.
They encounter a con man named Simple Savior, a phony revolutionary leader who purports to be the “cousin” of Black Jesus, and that he gives his followers “the strength to kill whites“. In a flashy stage performance in his “church”, Savior acts out being brutalized by symbols of black oppression—represented by images of John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon, before asking his parishioners for “donations”. When Rabbit attempts to stir up anti-revolutionary sentiment, Savior tries to have him killed. After Rabbit saves his life via reverse psychology, he and Bear kill Savior. This allows Rabbit to take over Savior’s racket, putting him in line to become the head of all organized crime in Harlem. But first, he has to get rid of a few other opponents. Savior’s former partners tell Rabbit that if he can’t kill his opponents, then they’ll kill him instead.
Rabbit first goes up against Madigan, a virulently racist and homophobic white police officer and bagman for the Mafia, who demonstrates his contempt for Blacks in various ways, including a refusal to bathe before an anticipated encounter with them (he believes they’re not worth it). When Madigan finds out that Rabbit has been taking his payoffs, he and his cohorts, Ruby and Bobby, are led to a nightclub called “The Cottontail”. A Black stripper distracts him while an LSD sugar cube is dropped into his drink. Madigan, while under the influence of his spiked drink, is then maneuvered into a sexual liaison with a stereotypically effeminate gay man, and then shoved into women’s clothing representative of the mammy archetype, adorned in blackface, and finally shoved out the back of the club where he discovers that Ruby and Bobby are dead. Then, while recovering from his delirium of being drugged, shoots his gun around randomly, and is shot to death by the police after shooting one of them.
Rabbit’s final targets are the Godfather (voice of an uncredited Al Lewis) and the Mafia, who live in the subway. The contract for killing Rabbit is given to Sonny (voice of Richard Paul). Showing up outside Rabbit’s nightclub in blackface and clothing representative of minstrel show stereotypes, Sonny winds up shot multiple times by Rabbit before dying in an explosion caused by a car crash. His body is cremated and taken back home, where his mother weeps over his ashes. Bear becomes torn between staying with Rabbit, or starting a new, crime-free life. Bear decides to look for Fox in order to seek his advice. Upon arriving at Fox’s newly acquired brothel, Bear is “married” to a girl he, Fox, and Rabbit met during the fight with Savior’s men. Under the advisement of Fox, Bear becomes a boxer for the Mafia. During one of Bear’s fights, Rabbit sets up a melting imitation of himself made out of tar. As the Mafiosos take turns stabbing at the “tar rabbit”, they become stuck together. Rabbit, Bear, Fox and the opponent boxer rush out of the boxing arena as it blows up. The live-action story ends with Randy and Pappy escaping while being shot at by various white cops, but managing to make it out alive.
The New York Times Review
Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic helmer Ralph Bakshi subsequently directed the über-controversial animated feature Coonskin (aka Streetfight, 1975). Bakshi opens and closes the film with a live-action tale that stars Scatman Crothers, Miami Vice’s Philip Michael Thomas, Charles Gordone, and Barry White; it recounts the adventures of three Black men who escape from prison and are later gathered up. In between, an animated tale has animal characters with stereotypically black traits — Brother Rabbit (voiced by Thomas), Brother Fox (voiced by Gordone), and Brother Bear (voiced by White) — entering a white-dominated ghetto environment and diverging into different paths; one becomes a crime overlord, the second sells the first out to La Cosa Nostra, and the third establishes himself as a media-exploited sports icon. Completely misread as a racist work upon release, the film actually entails Bakshi’s satirical excoriation of bigotry via the tongue-in-cheek use of Black urban stereotypes. The director laces the film with profane ghetto dialogue and street slang; though animated, this is not a picture for children. Variety wrote of the work, “Beyond Bakshi’s cinematic style, his stories seem haunted by a worldliness that is torn between cynicism and tortured humanism. There is heart in his plots, so superficial putdown is totally absent. What is present [is] the evidently sincere empathy of a social surgeon.” The legendary Albert S. Ruddy (The Godfather, Cloud Nine) produced. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Acting Credits
Barry White - Samson
Barry White - Brother Bear
Charles Gordone - Preacher
Charles Gordone - Brother Fox
Scatman Crothers - Old Man Bone
Scatman Crothers - Pappy
Philip Michael Thomas - Randy
Philip Michael Thomas - Brother Rabbit
Production Credits
Director - Ralph Bakshi
Screenplay - Ralph Bakshi
Producer - Albert S. Ruddy
Stills - Ralph Bakshi
Director of Photography - William A. Fraker
Stills - Johnnie Vita
Editor - Donald W. Ernst
Animation Photography - Ted C. Bemiller
Music - Chico Hamilton
Assistant Director - James Roden
The status of Antonio Fargas is legendary. Since his initiation into the world of film at the age of fourteen, when his exceptional interpretative skills led to a role in Shirley Clark’s Cool World, he has been noted for the unforgettable characters he creates, most famously through his role as the incorrigible and loveable ‘Huggy Bear’ in TV’s Starsky & Hutch.
Whether perfecting outrageously comedic characters as in Robert Downey’s Putney Swope and Keenan Ivory Wayan’s I’m Going to Git You Sucka, or chilling the audience through a convincing rendition of a ninety year old witch doctor, as in the Broadway play, The Great White Hope, Antonio’s performances have generated a near endless array of enthusiastic acclaim from some of the industry’s most respected critics of film, television and stage.
Antonio’s stage career is most extensive with appearances both on and off Broadway, these include Melvin Van Peeples’ Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, the on-Broadway production of The Great White Hope, North Carolina Repertory’s The Contract, Stage West’s The Rainmaker and The Emperor Jones, and numerous other productions.
Antonio Fargas is also a partner in his own production company, Granada Entertainment. The company specializes in the writing and production of new film and television products and currently have a television series in development for British television. Antonio is currently partnering with a number of other artists in a tribute to urban art forms, the focus of his tribute is a twelve city tour of Calling All Saints, a gospel musical stage play about the threats to marriage and family.
His commitment to theatre is further exemplified by his position on the boards of Rhode Island’s Langston Hughes Centre for the Arts, and the Martin Luther King Center of Newport. He is Chairman of the Board of the Mount Vernon Open Case Theatre, and Honorary Board Chair on the Progressive Symphony’s Academy of the Arts, an organization by Maestra Yvetter Devereaux.
1970’s Filmography:
Pretty Baby (1978) …. Professor
Car Wash (1976) …. Lindy
Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975) …. One-Eye
… aka Hit the Open Man
The Gambler (1974) …. Pimp
Foxy Brown (1974) ….Link Brown
Conrack (1974) …. Quickfellow
Busting (1974) …. Stephen
Cleopatra Jones (1973) …. Doodlebug Simkins
Across 110th Street (1972) …. Henry J. Jackson
Cisco Pike (1972) …. Buffalo
Believe in Me (1971) …. Boy
Shaft (1971) …. Bunky
Pound (1970) …. Greyhound
