Cleavon Little
Encyclopedia
Cleavon Jake Little was an American film and theatre actor.

Little was widely known for his lead role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...

 comedy Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...

. He also was the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland in the early 1970s sitcom Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising is an American television situation comedy that ran from September 12, 1972 to August 29, 1974 on the ABC network.The network had a good deal of faith in the low-rated series, which went through three cast changes, two different formats, and two time slots during its...

.


In 1978, he played "The Prince of Darkness" in the radio station comedy FM
FM (film)
FM is a 1978 directed by John A. Alonzo, and starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras and Cleavon Little. The screenplay was written by Ezra Sacks.This film was produced by Universal Pictures, and originally released to movie theaters in 1978....

, previously having played the role of radio personality Super Soul in the 1971 action film Vanishing Point. His later work included the 1984 film Toy Soldiers
Toy Soldiers
A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier, but the term may also refer to:In film and television:*Toy Soldiers , an action/drama film in which terrorists take a school hostage...

.

Early life

Little was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat, business and employment center of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 15,850 at the 2000 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and hosts an annual Festival of Light celebration located at...

 and was the brother of singer DeEtta Little, best known for her performance of Gonna Fly Now
Gonna Fly Now
"Gonna Fly Now", also known as "Theme from Rocky", is the theme song from the movie Rocky, composed by Bill Conti with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, and performed by DeEtta Little and Nelson Pigford...

, the main theme to Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

. He grew up in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and attended college initially at San Diego City College
San Diego City College
San Diego City College is a public, two-year community college located in San Diego, California. City College is part of the San Diego Community College District along with San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College and San Diego Continuing Education...

, and then at San Diego State University
San Diego State University
San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...

 where he earned a bachelor's degree in dramatic arts.
After receiving a full scholarship to graduate school Juilliard he moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. After completing studies at Juilliard, Little trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...

.

Career

Little made his professional debut in February 1967, appearing Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 at The Village Gate
The Village Gate
The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York.Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 158 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structure by architect Ernest Flagg was known at the time as...

 as the Muslim Witch in the original production of Barbara Garson
Barbara Garson
Barbara Garson is an American playwright, author and social activist.Garson is best known for the play MacBird, a notorious 1966 counterculture drama/political parody of Macbeth that sold over half a million copies as a book and had over 90 productions world wide...

's MacBird
MacBird
MacBird! was a 1967 satire by Barbara Garson that superimposed the transferral of power following the Kennedy assassination onto the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth....

. This was followed by the role of Foxtrot in the original production of Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.Raised in the Bronx by Irving and Mollie Friedman, Bruce Jay Friedman graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. He then attended the University of Missouri as a journalism major, then served as a First Lieutenant in...

's long-running play Scuba Duba which premiered in October 1967.

The following year, he made his first film appearance in a small uncredited role in What's So Bad About Feeling Good?
What's so bad about feeling good?
What's So Bad About Feeling Good? is the title of a 1968 comedy film, starring George Peppard, Mary Tyler Moore, Jeanne Arnold, Dom DeLuise and Gillian Spencer....

, as well as his first television appearance as a guest star on two episodes of Felony Squad
Felony Squad
Felony Squad is a half-hour television crime drama originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 12, 1966 to January 31, 1969, a span encompassing seventy-three episodes.-Overview:...

. A series of small roles followed in films like John and Mary
John and Mary (Film)
John and Mary is a 1969 American romantic drama film directed by Peter Yates. It stars Mia Farrow as Mary, and Dustin Hoffman as John, directly on the heels of Rosemary's Baby and Midnight Cowboy, respectively...

(1969) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970).

Little made his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 debut in 1969 as Lee Haines in John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...

 and Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal is an American playwright and screenwriter.Native New Yorker Schisgal won his first recognition for the 1963 off-Broadway double-bill The Typists and The Tiger, which won him the Drama Desk Award. His 1965 Broadway debut, Luv, earned him Tony Award nominations for Best Play and...

's musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 Jimmy Shine
Jimmy Shine
Jimmy Shine is an American musical with music and lyrics by John Sebastian and a musical book by Murray Schisgal. The plot of the musical centers on its title character who is a struggling artist in Greenwich Village during the 1960s...

with Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

 in the title role. In 1971, he returned to Broadway to portray the title role of Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...

's musical Purlie
Purlie
Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...

, for which he won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 and a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

 for Best Actor in a Musical.

A year later, Little was hired as an ensemble player on the syndicated TV variety weekly The David Frost
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...

 Revue
and he portrayed Shogo in Narrow Road to the Deep North
Narrow Road to the Deep North
Narrow Road to the Deep North is a 1968 satirical play on the British Empire by the English playwright Edward Bond .It is a political parable set in Japan in the Edo period. It deals with the poet Basho and the changing political landscape over about 35 years...

on Broadway.

In 1971, Little was chosen to portray the blind radio personality Super Soul in the car-chase movie Vanishing Point. That same year, Little played Hawthorne Dooley in an episode of The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...

called "Homecoming: A Christmas Story," helping John Boy Walton search for his father.

He then starred in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 sitcom Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising is an American television situation comedy that ran from September 12, 1972 to August 29, 1974 on the ABC network.The network had a good deal of faith in the low-rated series, which went through three cast changes, two different formats, and two time slots during its...

, which aired in three different iterations from 1972–74, with Little's character of Dr. Jerry Noland as the only common element.

Concurrently, he was cast as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 comedy film Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...

, after the studio rejected Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...

, who co-wrote the script. Studio execs were apparently nervous over Pryor's reputation as a racy comedian and thought Little would be a safer choice. This role earned him a BAFTA Award nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.

He ended up in a supporting role for Richard Pryor in the racing movie Greased Lightning
Greased Lightning
Greased Lightning is a 1977 American biographical film, starring Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, and Pam Grier, and directed by Michael Schultz. Greased Lightning is a film loosely based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first African American stock car racing champion in the United States...

(1977), based on the true life story of Wendell Scott
Wendell Scott
Wendell Oliver Scott was an American stock car racing driver from Danville, Virginia. He is the only black driver to win a race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series. According to a 2008 biography of Scott, he broke the color barrier in Southern stock car racing on May 23, 1952, at the Danville...

, the first black stock car racing
Stock car racing
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, Brazil and Argentina. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately in length...

 winner in America.

In 1975, Little returned to Broadway to portray the role of Lewis in the original production of Murray Schisgal's All Over Town under the direction of Dustin Hoffman. The following year, he appeared as Willy Stepp in the original production of Ronald Ribman
Ronald Ribman
Ronald Burt Ribman is an American author, poet and playwright.-Biography:Ribman was born in Sydenham Hospital in New York City to Samuel M. Ribman, a lawyer, and Rosa Ribman. He attended public school in Brooklyn, and graduated P.S. 188 in 1944. Ribman attended Mark Twain Jr. High School,...

's The Poison Tree at the Ambassador Theatre.

Later career

After Blazing Saddles, Little appeared in many less successful films, such as Greased Lightning
Greased Lightning
Greased Lightning is a 1977 American biographical film, starring Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, and Pam Grier, and directed by Michael Schultz. Greased Lightning is a film loosely based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first African American stock car racing champion in the United States...

, FM
FM (film)
FM is a 1978 directed by John A. Alonzo, and starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras and Cleavon Little. The screenplay was written by Ezra Sacks.This film was produced by Universal Pictures, and originally released to movie theaters in 1978....

, High Risk
High Risk (1981 film)
High Risk is a 1981 American/Mexican/UK adventure/heist film directed by Stewart Raffill.Plot SummaryFour unemployed American’s land in a South American jungle ready to steal $5m from a drug lord’s villa...

, Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt is a 1979 comedy film with a large ensemble cast, in the mold of the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.-Plot summary:...

, Jimmy the Kid
Jimmy the Kid
Jimmy the Kid is a 1982 comedy film starring Gary Coleman and Paul Le Mat. It was directed by Gary Nelson, produced by Ronald Jacobs, and released in November 1982 by New World Pictures...

and Toy Soldiers. Little also made guest appearances on The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...

, The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...

, The Rookies
The Rookies
The Rookies is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1972 until 1976. It followed the exploits of three rookie police officers in an unidentified city for the fictitious Southern California Police Department .-History:...

, Police Story, All In The Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

, The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

, The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...

, Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

, ABC Afterschool Specials, The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...

and ALF
ALF (TV series)
ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990, created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF , who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.The series starred Max...

.

In 1989, he appeared in the episode Stand By Your Man of Dear John and won the Outstanding Guest Actor
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.-1980s:Outstanding Guest Performer In A Comedy Series*1986: Roscoe Lee Browne – The Cosby Show as Dr...

 Emmy, defeating Robert Picardo
Robert Picardo
Robert Picardo is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Dr. Dick Richards on ABC's China Beach, the Emergency Medical Hologram , also known as The Doctor, on UPN's Star Trek: Voyager, The Cowboy in Innerspace, Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years , Ben Wheeler in Wagons East, and as...

, Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford was an American actor on Broadway, films and television.-Early life:Gilford was born Jacob Aaron Gellman on the lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn...

, Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

 and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....



Little had a part in Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...

, the sequel to 1985's Fletch
Fletch (film)
Fletch is a 1985 comedy film about a wisecracking investigative newspaper reporter, Irwin M. Fletcher , who writes under the name of Jane Doe...

. He co-starred opposite Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton is an American model and actress. She is best-known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career.-Personal life:...

 and Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...

 in the 1985 horror comedy Once Bitten.

Little was slated to star in the TV series Mr. Dugan
Mr. Dugan
Mr. Dugan is an American sitcom about a black Congressman that was scheduled to air in March 1979 on CBS, but never aired.-History:In early 1978, producer Norman Lear felt his long-running comedy Maude was getting stale, so he decided to enliven things by moving the show to Washington, D.C. and...

, where he was to play a black Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

man, but that series was poorly received by real black Congressmen and was canceled before making it to air. He replaced Frankie Faison
Frankie Faison
Frankie Russel Faison , often credited as Frankie R. Faison, is an American actor.-Personal life:Faison was born in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Carmena and Edgar Faison. He studied drama at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, where he joined Theta Chi Fraternity...

 as Ronald Freeman, a black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 dentist married to Ellen Freeman, a white housewife, on the short-lived FOX sitcom True Colors
True Colors (TV series)
True Colors is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from September 2, 1990 to April 12, 1992 for a total of 45 episodes. The series was created by Michael J...

.

In 1988, Little returned to Broadway to appear as Midge in Herb Gardner's Tony Award-winning play I'm Not Rappaport
I'm Not Rappaport
I'm Not Rappaport is a play by Herb Gardner originally staged by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1984. Its Broadway debut production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, starring Judd Hirsch, Cleavon Little, Jace Alexander, and Mercedes Ruehl, opened on November 19, 1985 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran...

reuniting with Dear John series star Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...

 in New York and later on tour. The Broadway cast also featured Jace Alexander
Jace Alexander
Jace Alexander is an American television director and former actor.-Biography:Alexander was born Jason Alexander in New York City, the only son of actress Jane Alexander and her first husband Robert, founder and former director of The Living Stage...

 and Mercedes Ruehl
Mercedes Ruehl
Mercedes J. Ruehl is an American theater, television and film actor.-Personal life:Ruehl was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, the daughter of Mercedes J., a school teacher, and Vincent Ruehl, an FBI agent. She was raised Catholic. Her father was of German and Irish descent and her...

.

In 1991, Little was cast as a civil rights lawyer in the TV docu-drama, Separate But Equal, starring Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...

, who portrayed the first black U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...

, NAACP lead attorney in the 1954 Supreme Court case desegregating
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...

 public schools. He also played in the MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...

series as Frank Colton, half of a bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...

 brother duo.

Death

Little's last appearance was a guest part on an episode of Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...

. Often afflicted by ulcers
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...

 and general stomach problems during his life, Little died of colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....

 on October 22, 1992 at age 53. His remains were cremated.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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