Davetucson Ingalls Friend for Life
Number of posts : 9374 Location : Helena, Alabama Mood :
| Subject: Al Freeman Jr. Wed Aug 15, 2012 12:35 pm | |
| Died with little or no fanfare six days ago. A very good actor. Al Freeman, Jr. was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Lottie Brisette (née Coleman) and Albert Cornelius Freeman, a jazz pianist. He is mostly recognized for his portrayal of Police Captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live, a role he played from 1972 through 1987, with recurring roles 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 was also a director of One Life to Live, and was one of the first African Americans to direct a soap opera. After leaving One Life to Live, Freeman appeared in the motion picture Down in the Delta. His Broadway theatre credits include Look to the Lilies, Blues for Mister Charlie, and Medea. His portrayal of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad in the motion picture Malcolm X earned him the 1995 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Coincidently, he had previously played Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations. He taught acting at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Freeman died on August 9, 2012 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 78. | |
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