Stan Shaw

Stan Shaw is an American actor born on July 14, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Bertha Shaw and saxophonist Eddie Shaw, and the cousin of soul singers Sam Cooke and Tyrone Davis. His brother, Vaan Shaw, is a guitarist who also performs under the name Eddie Shaw Jr. Before pursuing acting, Shaw worked as an instructor in karate, judo, and jujutsu in Chicago, holding a first dan black belt in judo and jujutsu and a second dan in karate.

Shaw launched his performing career on stage, appearing in the Chicago production of Hair and the Broadway production of The Me Nobody Knows. His Broadway work continued through the early 1970s, culminating in a role in the rock musical Via Galactica, directed by Peter Hall, in 1972. His Broadway credits span the years 1969 to 1972.

His screen career began in 1974 with appearances in the blaxploitation films Truck Turner and TNT Jackson, followed by the musical film Darktown Strutters in 1975. In 1976, Shaw took on the role of Joseph Vanderbilt "Esquire Joe" Calloway in the sports comedy The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, alongside Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor. That same year he appeared in Rocky as "Big Dipper" Brown, a rival boxer who taunts the title character after being given his locker. In 1978, Shaw starred in the Vietnam War drama The Boys in Company C, and in 1979 he had a supporting role in The Great Santini. Also in 1979, he portrayed Alex Haley's maternal grandfather Will Palmer in the television miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.

Shaw received NAACP Theatre Awards for his performance in Samm-Art Williams' play Home. On television, he starred in the 1979 NBC Western pilot Buffalo Soldiers, about Black cavalry units who protected Western territories following the Civil War. From 1983 to 1984 he appeared in the CBS legal drama series The Mississippi, and in 1984 he starred in the HBO prison drama series Maximum Security. In 1985 he appeared in an episode of the anthology series American Playhouse titled Displaced Person, and in 1986 he co-starred with Cicely Tyson and Martin Sheen in the television film Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story. The following year he starred in the miniseries Billionaire Boys Club. He also made appearances in Hill Street Blues, Fame, The Young Riders, Wiseguy, and Murder, She Wrote, and played Isaac in the 1994 miniseries North and South.

Among his film appearances, Shaw played professional fighters in Tough Enough (1983), Busted Up (1986), Harlem Nights (1989), and Snake Eyes (1998). Additional credits include Runaway (1984), The Monster Squad (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Body of Evidence (1993), Rising Sun (1993), Houseguest (1995) alongside Sinbad, Cutthroat Island (1995) with Geena Davis, and the disaster film Daylight (1996), in which he appeared as George Tyrell. In 2000 he played Archie Mullen in the television film Freedom Song.

During the 2000s and early 2010s, Shaw made selective appearances in series including The X-Files and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He returned to feature films in 2017 with Jeepers Creepers 3, and in 2019 guest-starred in the episode of The Young and the Restless dedicated to the funeral of actor Kristoff St. John. In 2020 he appeared in the horror film The Pale Door. Beginning in 2022, Shaw joined the cast of the BET+ drama series The Family Business as Larry Duncan, a role that extended into the 2024 spin-off series The Family Business: New Orleans. In 2023 he held a recurring role in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med.

Shaw was married to author and psychotherapist Dr. Zoe Shaw in 1996; the couple divorced in 2023.