Christopher St. John

Christopher St. John is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer who has worked across stage, film, and television. He is also known by the credit Chris St. John.

St. John became a member of the Actors Studio in the mid-1960s and made his Broadway appearance in 1969 in No Place to Be Somebody. His screen career spanned from 1968 to 1988, encompassing eight film and television productions, including a minor role in the television series Remington Steele.

His most widely recognized screen performance came in the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, in which he portrayed Ben Buford. The following year, St. John took on a multifaceted role with Top of the Heap (1972), a film in which he appeared as George Lattimer while also serving as its writer, director, and producer. The film was submitted to the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it received a nomination for the Golden Bear, the festival's top prize. Richard Brody of The New Yorker characterized the film as a "crucial work of Afrofuturism."

St. John also pursued long-form documentary work. A Man Called God, a documentary he began filming in 1980, had its public debut at the San Diego Black Film Festival in 2014. The film was co-directed with his son, actor Kristoff St. John. Kristoff St. John died on February 3, 2019.