Cleavon Little

Cleavon Jake Little was born on June 1, 1939, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, and was raised in San Diego, California, where he attended Kearny High School and graduated in 1957. He earned a degree in speech therapy from San Diego State College in 1965, working as a janitor to finance his education while also giving Black poetry presentations to clubs and groups. During his college years he appeared in a 1962 production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. An ABC scholarship brought him to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he was named best actor of the graduating class of 1967. His siblings included singer DeEtta Little West, known for performing the vocals on Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now," the theme to Rocky, as well as a sister, Rosemarie Little Martin, and two brothers, Everett and Roy.

Little launched his professional stage career in February 1967 in the off-Broadway original production of Barbara Garson's MacBird at the Village Gate, where he played the Muslim Witch. He followed that with the role of Foxtrot in Bruce Jay Friedman's Scuba Duba, which opened off-Broadway in October 1967. While performing Foxtrot at night, he portrayed Hamlet during daytime performances at schools and parks for the New York Shakespeare Festival. His Broadway debut came in 1969, when he played Lee Haines in the musical Jimmy Shine, which starred Dustin Hoffman in the title role.

Little's Broadway career spanned from 1968 to 1986 and included productions such as Purlie, Narrow Road to the Deep North, All Over, The Poison Tree, and I'm Not Rappaport. His most celebrated stage achievement came in 1970, when he portrayed the title role in Ossie Davis's musical Purlie, earning both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. The following year he appeared on Broadway as Shogo in Narrow Road to the Deep North. In 1975 he returned to Broadway to play Lewis in the original production of Murray Schisgal's All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman. The next year he appeared as Willy Stepp in the original production of Ronald Ribman's The Poison Tree at the Ambassador Theatre. In December 1985, Little opened at the Booth Theatre as Midge in Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport alongside Judd Hirsch, having originated the role at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.

His screen career began with a small uncredited film role in What's So Bad About Feeling Good? in 1968 and guest appearances on the television series Felony Squad the same year. Roles in films including John and Mary and Cotton Comes to Harlem followed in 1969 and 1970. In 1971 he was cast as the blind radio personality Super Soul in the car-chase film Vanishing Point and played preacher Hawthorne Dooley in the television pilot The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which launched The Waltons. His first leading television role came with the ABC sitcom Temperatures Rising, which ran from 1972 to 1974, in which he played Dr. Jerry Noland as the sole consistent character across the show's three iterations.

The role that became most closely identified with Little was Sheriff Bart in Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy western Blazing Saddles, a part he received after the studio rejected co-writer Richard Pryor. The performance earned Little a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. He also appeared in a supporting role alongside Pryor in the 1977 racing film Greased Lightning, based on the life of Wendell Scott. Additional film credits across the late 1970s and 1980s included FM, Scavenger Hunt, The Salamander, High Risk, Jimmy the Kid, Surf II, Toy Soldiers, Once Bitten, The Gig, and Fletch Lives.

In 1981 Little returned to the New York stage in the off-Broadway production The Resurrection of Lady Lester, in which he played jazz saxophonist Lester Young. That same year he appeared in the television docudrama Separate but Equal, which starred Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshall, with Little in the role of a civil-rights lawyer. In 1989 he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance in the Dear John episode "Stand by Your Man," in which he played a closeted gay man. Beginning in 1991 he starred in the Fox sitcom True Colors as Ronald Freeman, replacing Frankie Faison in the role, and also appeared in 12 episodes of the television series Bagdad Cafe. His final acting credit was a 1992 guest role on Tales from the Crypt.

Little married Valerie Wiggins in 1972; they divorced in 1974. His daughter is Adia Millett. He died of colon cancer at his home in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles on October 22, 1992. On February 1, 1994, he was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard near El Cerrito Place. The Cleavon Little Scholarship, supporting minority students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, was established through a campaign led by his fellow alumnus and I'm Not Rappaport co-star Judd Hirsch.