Samm-Art Williams
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Samm-Art Williams (born Samuel Arthur Williams, January 20, 1946)[1] is a Tony Award-nominated, African-American playwright and stage and film/TV actor.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Samm-Art Williams was born in Burgaw, North Carolina, the son of Samuel and Valdosia Williams, the latter a school teacher.[1]
As Samm Williams, he entered New York City theater as an actor as early as 1973, with the play Black Jesus.[1] With New York's Negro Ensemble Company, he appeared in such plays as Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide (St. Mark's Playhouse, 1974) and Liberty Calland (St. Mark's Playhouse, 1975), before taking on the name Samm-Art Williams for Argus and Klansman and Waiting for Mongo (St. Mark's Playhouse, 1975).[1]
Other early New York acting experience includes uunderstudy work in Leslie Lee's Tony Award-nominated Broadway play The First Breeze of Summer (Palace Theatre, June 7 - July 19, 1975);[2] Eden (St. Mark's Playhouse, 1976), The Brownsville Raid (Theatre de Lys, 1976-77), Night Shift (Playhouse Theatre, 1977), and Black Body Blues (St. Mark's Playhouse, 1978). His early work in regional theater includes Nevis Mountain Dew at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C (1979).[1]
He made his screen debut playing "Roger" in the Richard Price novel adaptation The Wanderers (1979), and played a subway police officer in director Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980).[1] An earlier film, the independent blaxploitation feature The Baron, a.k.a. Baron Wolfgang von Tripps and Black Cue, made circa 1977, was released direct-to-video by Paragon Video in 1996.[3]
Concurrently, as Samm Williams, he wrote the play Welcome to Black River, produced by the Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark's Playhouse in 1975; and as Samm-Art Williams, The Coming and Do Unto Others, both at the Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn in 1976; A Love Play produced by the NEC at St. Mark's Playhouse that same year; The Last Caravan (1977); and Brass Birds Don't Sing, at New York City's Stage 73 in 1978.[1]
[edit] Home
Williams' comedy Home was mounted by the Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark's Playhouse from 1979-80,[1] moving to Broadway's Cort Theatre from May 7, 1980 to January 4, 1981.[2] The play earned nominations for both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award.[4]
[edit] 1980s
Williams went on to play Matthew Henson in the historical drama TV movie Cook and Peary: The Race to the Pole (CBS, 1983). He went on to star in the PBS American Playhouse dramas Denmark Vesey (1985; title role) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (as Jim; 1986), and in the mid-1980s appeared on such episodic television series as The New Mike Hammer, 227, and Frank's Place, a CBS dramedy for which he also served as a story editor. His film work during this time included a role in Blood Simple (1984).
Aside from that series, Williams also wrote the PBS productions Kneeslappers (1980) and Experiment in Freedom (American Playhouse, 1985); for the episodic series Cagney and Lacey, The New Mike Hammer, Miami Vice, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air; the "John Henry" episode of the Showtime cable network series Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends; and the NBC special Motown Returns to the Apollo (1986), among other work, including a CBS series pilot titled Lenny's Neighborhood.[1]
[edit] Later career
Williams wrote and directed the comedy The Dance on Widows' Row, produced by the New Federal Theatre at Manhattan's Harry De Jur Playhouse at Henry Street Settlement from June 25 - July 30, 2000.[5]
In 2006, Williams held auditions for his play The Waiting Room, to be performed at the Raleigh Little Theatre's Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina.[6]
[edit] Awards and honors
- 1980 Tony Award Nomination - Best Play: Home, written by Samm-Art Williams[4]
- 1980 Drama Desk Award Nomination - Outstanding New Play: Home, written by Samm-Art Williams[4]
- 1985 Emmy Award Nomination - Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, for Motown Returns to the Apollo (shared with fellow writers Buz Kohan and Peter Elbling)
- 1988 Emmy Award Nomination - Outstanding Comedy Series, Frank's Place (as story editor; shared with executive producers Hugh Wilson and Tim Reid, producers Max Tash and David Chambers and co-producer Richard Dubin
- Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation [disambiguation needed] and the National Endowment for the Arts[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i FilmReference.com: Samm-Art Williams
- ^ a b Internet Broadway Database: Samm-Art Williams
- ^ Box Office Prophets: "It Came from the Basement" (column): "The Baron", by John Seal (January 6, 2003)
- ^ a b c Internet Broadway Database: Samm-Art Williams - Awards
- ^ Gutman, Les, CurtainUp.com: Review, June 29, 2000
- ^ "Auditions for "The Waiting Room" by Samm-Art Williams", Raleigh Little Theatre press releases
- ^ "ECU hosts fourth Literary Homecoming", 2007 East Carolina University press release
