Black History Month Day 17 ~ Cleavon Little

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Posted: 2/17/11 at 8:28pm

Cleavon Jake Little (June 1, 1939 – October 22, 1992) was an African-American film and theatre actor, known for his lead role as Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles and as the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland in the early 1970s sitcom Temperatures Rising. Although Bart is probably his most widely recognized performance, Little appeared frequently both on and off Broadway, and he was the first African American to win the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Little was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma and was the brother of singer DeEtta Little, best known for her performance of Gonna Fly Now, the main theme to Rocky. After receiving a full scholarship to graduate school Juilliard he moved to New York. After completing studies at Juilliard, Little trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Little made his professional debut in February 1967, appearing Off-Broadway at The Village Gate as the Muslim Witch in the original production of Barbara Garson's MacBird. This was followed by the role of Foxtrot in the original production of Bruce Jay Friedman's long running play Scuba Duba which premiered in October 1967. Little made his Broadway debut in 1969 as Lee Haines in John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's musical Jimmy Shine with Dustin Hoffman in the title role. In 1970, he returned to Broadway to portray the title role in Ossie Davis's musical Purlie, a role for which he won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical. A year later, he portrayed Shogo in Narrow Road to the Deep North on Broadway. Little returned to Broadway in 1975 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's The Poison Tree at the Ambassador Theatre. In 1988, Little returned to Broadway to appear as Midge in Herb Gardner's Tony Award winning play I'm Not Rappaport with Judd Hirsch, Jace Alexander and Mercedes Ruehl. In 1991, Little was cast as a civil rights lawyer in the TV docu-drama, Separate But Equal, starring Sidney Poitier, who portrayed the first black U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, NAACP lead attorney in the 1954 Supreme Court case desegregating public schools.