Obba Babatundé

Obba Babatundé, born Donald Cohen on December 1, 1951, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, is an American actor whose career spans more than seventeen stage productions, thirty theatrical films, sixty made-for-television films, and multiple prime-time series. From an early age, Cohen was drawn to performance, singing, dancing, and acting for his family while attending public schools in Queens. At Jamaica High School, he participated in the Sing '68 school musical program, served as a student aide, and competed on both the track and cross country teams, graduating in 1969. After high school, he began teaching at a private school for students of color while pursuing acting work Off-Off-Broadway. Upon learning that his ancestry included Nigerian heritage, Cohen adopted the name Obba Babatundé, combining Yoruba words meaning "king" and "father has returned again."

Babatundé has identified a 1976 touring production of Guys and Dolls, starring Leslie Uggams and Richard Roundtree, as a breakthrough moment in his career. His Broadway debut came in 1978 with Timbuktu!, and he went on to appear in additional productions including Reggae, It's So Nice to Be Civilized, and Chicago, with his Broadway work spanning from 1978 to 1996. The role that defined his stage career was that of C.C. White in the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls, for which he received a 1982 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as well as an Ovation Award nomination in 1981. Following the Broadway run, he toured with the Dreamgirls company for two years. He later directed a production of the same musical. In 1982, Babatundé also appeared as Zodzetrick in the Houston Grand Opera's second staging of Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha.

As his career expanded into film, Babatundé accumulated a wide range of roles. He played an attorney in Philadelphia (1993), a SWAT captain in John Q, Willie Long in Life, Lamar in That Thing You Do!, Dean Cain in How High, and Mayor Denny in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. Additional film credits include The Notebook, The Manchurian Candidate, After the Sunset, Material Girls, The Celestine Prophecy, The Last Fall, Trapped, Tension, Kinky, The Fallen Faithful, If I Tell You I Have to Kill You, and Life as Willie. In 1980, he appeared alongside Liza Minnelli in the documentary film Liza In New Orleans.

Babatundé's television work has been equally extensive. He played Berry Gordy in the 1998 miniseries The Temptations and appeared as Daniel Harrelson Sr., the father of Shemar Moore's character, in the 2017 series S.W.A.T. He portrayed Barton Royce in Showtime's I'm Dying Up Here (2017) and Dean Fairbanks in Netflix's Dear White People (2017–2018), and appeared in CBS's Madam Secretary. A recurring role as Bishop Bruce Congdon featured in both Kingdom and Amazon's Hand of God. His additional television appearances include Half & Half, The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Cold Case, Strong Medicine, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, Any Day Now, Karen Sisco, Dawson's Creek, and Friends.

Babatundé's voice acting credits include Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, and Disney Infinity 3.0, as well as Conroy in Rocket Power, Boko in The Wild Thornberrys Movie, and Big Ears in the 2016 film Pup Star. As a recording artist, he sang the title track on Onaje Allan Gumbs's album Sack Full of Dreams and contributed "The Gal That Got Away" to Over the Rainbow, the Harold Arlen soundtrack.

Behind the camera, Babatundé has worked as a producer and director across multiple projects. He served as co-producer and director of Oscar's Black Odyssey, co-producer of Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty and TV in Black: The First 50 Years, associate producer of the horror film Voodoo Dolls, and executive producer of Journey. He directed and co-stars with Katt Williams in the Lionsgate Home Entertainment feature American Bad Boy, and he produced and directed the short film Clarissa's Gift. He also co-authored, directed, and produced In the Blink of an Eye.

Among his awards and nominations, Babatundé received an Emmy nomination for the 1997 HBO film Miss Evers' Boys and an NAACP Image Award nomination for the 1999 HBO film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. In 2010, he won the NAACP Theatre Awards' Best Lead Male for portraying Sammy Davis Jr. in the Old Globe production of the musical Sammy, and in 2011 he received the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor for his role as Sarge in A Soldier's Play. In 2016, he earned the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Julius Avant on The Bold and the Beautiful. He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Peachtree Village International Film Festival and was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum in 2019. Babatundé is the grandfather of NFL running back Tarik Cohen.