Al Freeman Jr.

Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr. (March 21, 1934 – August 9, 2012) was an American actor, director, and educator. A life member of The Actors Studio,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from Leroi Jones' Slave/Toilet to Joe Papp's revivals of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Troilus and Cressida, and films, including My Sweet Charlie, Finian's Rainbow, and Malcolm X, as well as television series The Mod Squad, Kojak, and Maude, and a long-running role on the soap opera One Life to Live.

Early life, family and education

Al Freeman was born in San Antonio, Texas, to Lottie Brisette (née Coleman) and Albert Cornelius Freeman, a jazz pianist.<ref name= aareg>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His parents divorced when he was nine years old, his father relocated to Columbus, Ohio,<ref name= aareg /> so Al was raised in both places.<ref name= Oxford-AASC>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name= WP-spanned>Template:Cite news</ref>

Al Freeman Jr. attended Los Angeles City College, studying acting in 1951,<ref name= aareg /> but left school to enlist in the US Air Force, serving in the Korean War.<ref name= "star obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name= aareg /> After three years in the military, he returned to Los Angeles, taking courses in "speech, broadcasting and drama" and "train[ing] for the stage with Jeff Corey, Harold Clifton, and Frank Silvera.<ref name= aareg /> He "later earned a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts."<ref name= WP-spanned />

Career

Freeman's acting career began in 1958, working on several TV shows.<ref name= "TV Apple">Template:Cite web</ref> He relocated to New York City in 1959,<ref name= aareg /> and the following year made his Broadway debut in The Long Dream (based on the 1958 novel by Richard Wright).<ref name= "NYT obit">Template:Cite news</ref> He appeared in Black Like Me, the 1964 film adaptation of the novel of the same name.<ref name= "TV Apple" /> He starred opposite Frank Sinatra in the 1968 feature film The Detective, directed by Gordon Douglas. Freeman starred opposite Shirley Knight in the Los Angeles production of the play Dutchman, written by Amiri Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones),<ref name="memorial">Template:Cite press release</ref> and in 1967, Dutchman was adapted into a film directed by English filmmaker Anthony Harvey.<ref name= exile>Template:Cite news</ref> Also on Broadway, he performed as Homer Smith in Look to the Lilies, a musical adaptation of Lilies of the Field, opposite Shirley Booth. The show ran for 25 performances and 31 previews in 1970. He played the title role in the TV movie My Sweet Charlie (1970) which co-starred Patty Duke.<ref name= "TV Apple" /> He acted in another Broadway play, The Hot L Baltimore (1973).

His most recognized role was as police captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live from 1972 through 1987, with recurring appearances in 1988 and 2000. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for that role in 1979, the first actor from the show as well as the first African-American actor to earn the award. He played Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations. In the 1990s, he had a recurring guest role as the manipulative Baltimore deputy police commissioner James Harris in Homicide: Life on the Street. Freeman acted in the motion picture Down in the Delta (1998). His portrayal of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam leader, in the film Malcolm X earned him the 1992 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Guest appearances included the TV series The Cosby Show and Law & Order,<ref name= "star obit" /> in which he played a character in a 1990 episode and a different character in a 2004 episode.

In 1988, Freeman became a visiting artist-in-residence at the Department of Theatre Arts of Howard University in Washington, D.C., then became a full-time faculty member in 1991.<ref name= WP-spanned /> He was its department chairman for six years,<ref name="memorial" /> beginning in 2005,<ref name= "NYT obit" /> and occasionally directed plays there and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, at Vineyard Playhouse.<ref name= WP-spanned />

Personal life and death

Freeman married Sevara E. Clemon on January 8, 1960, but the marriage ended in divorce.<ref name= aareg /><ref name= WP-spanned />

He enjoyed his Template:Convert sailboat "moored in the Potomac basin."<ref name= aareg />

Freeman died on August 9, 2012, in Washington, D.C., at age 78.<ref name= WP-spanned /><ref name= "NYT obit" /> The next day, a memorial service was held for him at Howard University.<ref name="memorial"/> In 2014, the Environmental Theatre Space at the Howard University Fine Arts Building was renamed The Al Freeman Jr. Environmental Theatre Space in his honor.<ref name= "theatre">Template:Cite press release</ref>

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Torpedo Run	Sam Baker	Uncredited
1960	This Rebel Breed	Satchel
1961	Sniper's Ridge	Medic Gwathney
1964	Black Like Me	Thomas Newcomb
1964	The Troublemaker	Intern
1964	Ensign Pulver	Taru
1966	For Pete's Sake
1967	Dutchman	Clay
1968	The Detective	Robbie
1968	Finian's Rainbow	Howard
1969	The Lost Man	Dennis Lawrence
1969	Castle Keep	Pvt. Allistair Piersall Benjamin
1970	My Sweet Charlie	Charles Roberts
1971	A Fable	The Leader
1972	To Be Young, Gifted and Black
1988	Seven Hours to Judgment	Danny Larwin
1992	Malcolm X	Elijah Muhammad
1994	Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker	Old Johnson Whittaker
1995	Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored	Poppa
1998	Down in the Delta	Earl Sinclair

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Edge of Night	Assistant District Attorney Ben Lee
1968	The F.B.I.	Alan Harmon	1 episode
1969	Judd for the Defense	Jeff Jones	1 episode
1972	The Mod Squad	Jessie Cook	1 episode
1972–1988	One Life to Live	Captain Ed Hall
1974	Maude	Roy	1 episode
1975	Hot l Baltimore	Charles Bingham	Main role
1976	Kojak	Donald Mosher	1 episode
1978	King	Damon Lockwood
1979	Roots: The Next Generations	Malcolm X
1985	The Cosby Show	Coach Ernie Scott	1 episode
1990	Law & Order	Reverend Thayer	1 episode
1995–1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	Deputy Commissioner James Harris
2004	Law & Order	Stan Wallace	1 episode

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if:

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• Al Freeman Jr. at Turner Classic Movies
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