Reggie Montgomery

Reginald Alexander Montgomery (September 15, 1947 – January 13, 2002) was an American actor, clown, and director born in Tallahassee, Florida, who became notable as the first African-American clown to perform with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and later built a substantial career in theater, film, and television spanning several decades.

Montgomery grew up in Tallahassee with two siblings. As a child he had a speech impediment that required surgery, and at age six he was enrolled in a theater program at Florida A&M University run by Sheppard Randolph Edmunds, the founder of the first Black theater educational program at Dillard University in 1936 and a figure sometimes referred to as "the dean of Black academic theater." Montgomery remained in that program for eight years. His parents had hoped he would pursue a career as an English teacher. He studied acting in high school and played touch football, then enrolled at Florida A&M University, where he studied drama and graduated in 1968.

Following his graduation, Montgomery attended the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College during its first year of operation in 1969. The school's dean, Mel Miller, had seen Montgomery in a local stage production and invited him to apply; of approximately 1,000 applicants, Montgomery was among 30 accepted. He was the only Black student in his classes. His instructors included Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly, under whom he studied acrobatic exercises, visual comedy, and pantomime. While attending the six-week program, he also worked as a substitute English teacher at Sarasota Junior High in Florida. Montgomery declined to perform in whiteface, and with the agreement of circus management he used a more restrained clown makeup. After completing clown college he toured with Ringling Bros. for one year before moving on to other pursuits. He later earned a master of fine arts degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

In the 1970s, Montgomery co-founded the Minority Repertory Theater in Dallas, Texas, alongside actress Irma P. Hall, and worked with director Paul Baker at the Dallas Theater Center. During his time in Dallas he portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in a production of A Christmas Carol. He subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting further, then moved to New York City in 1982.

Montgomery developed a close working relationship with playwright and director George C. Wolfe. In 1986 he appeared in Wolfe's The Colored Museum, playing multiple characters including Walter-Lee-Beau-Willy, described as a purposely stereotypical Black man, and Miss Roj, a transvestite character in white go-go boots and orange patio pants. His performances in Wolfe's productions earned him the Audelco Best Actor Award at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He also appeared in Wolfe's Back Alley Tales, including Spunk, in which he played a pimp. Montgomery staged a production of Spunk in 1990. His theater work additionally encompassed Suzan-Lori Parks's The America Play and In the Blood, plays by Zora Neale Hurston, Kia Corthron's Digging Eleven, I Ain't Yo Uncle: The New Jack Revisionist Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Love, Langston at Hartford Stage, where he served for two years as an associate artistic director.

On Broadway, Montgomery's career spanned from 1991 to 2000 and included two productions. He appeared in the 1991 Broadway production of Mule Bone and later in The Green Bird. Beyond Broadway, he directed Suzzanne Douglas in Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 2000. He had previously worked with Douglas in an Actors Studio production of The Obeah Man, a musical adaptation of Molière's The Doctor in Spite of Himself.

Montgomery's screen credits included the television series Matlock and Law & Order, as well as the films Malcolm X and Joe the King. From 1995 to 1999 he served as an associate professor of theater arts at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he wrote and directed productions including The Suburban Violence Project, Reggie Montgomery Directs, and Up Front and Personal, a collection of stories written by his students during a multicultural workshop. He also taught acting at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance and at the American Musical and Dramatic Arts Academy in New York. In 2001, his final acting credit, he portrayed James Baldwin in Wesley Brown's A Prophet Among Them.

Montgomery was a close friend of actor Tommy Hollis. He was found dead in his New York City apartment on January 13, 2002, having died of natural causes following a long illness. He was survived by a brother and a sister and was buried in Tallahassee, Florida.