Zakes Mokae

Zakes Makgona Mokae (5 August 1934 – 11 September 2009) was a South African stage and screen actor born in Johannesburg. He relocated to the United Kingdom in 1961 and later to the United States in 1969, building a career that spanned theater, film, and television across several decades.

Before turning to acting, Mokae played jazz saxophone in Trevor Huddleston's band. His transition to the stage coincided with the emergence of playwright Athol Fugard, with whom he would develop a long and defining professional relationship. The two first collaborated on Fugard's Blood Knot beginning in 1961, a two-character play set in South Africa centering on two brothers who share a mother but have different fathers. Mokae played Zach, the dark-skinned brother, while Fugard took the role of the fair-skinned Morris. That production marked the beginning of a partnership that would carry both men to Broadway.

Mokae appeared on Broadway between 1980 and 1993, accumulating four credits during that span. In addition to Blood Knot, he appeared in A Lesson From Aloes and starred in "MASTER HAROLD"…and the boys, the Fugard play that brought him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1982. The production was subsequently adapted for television in 1985, with Mokae reprising his role alongside Matthew Broderick. His final Broadway credit came in 1993 with The Song of Jacob Zulu, written by Tug Yourgrau, for which he received a second Tony nomination in the Featured Actor in a Play category.

Mokae's film work ranged from early supporting appearances to prominent roles in major productions. His screen credits began with an uncredited part in Darling in 1965 and a role in The Comedians in 1967, the latter starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He went on to appear in several anti-apartheid films, including Cry Freedom in 1987 and A Dry White Season in 1989. He also accumulated a substantial body of work in horror and genre films, among them The Serpent and the Rainbow and Vampire in Brooklyn, both directed by Wes Craven, as well as Dust Devil. Additional film credits include Gross Anatomy, Dad, A Rage in Harlem, Outbreak, and the Kevin Costner film Waterworld, in which he played the character Priam.

On television, Mokae appeared as a guest performer across a wide range of series, including Starsky and Hutch, Danger Man, Knight Rider, The X-Files, A Different World, Oz, The West Wing, and Monk. In later years he also worked as a theater director for American companies, including the Nevada Shakespeare Company.

Mokae had one child, Santlo Chontay Mokae, born in 1975 to American writer-filmmaker Eon Chontay Cjohnathan. The child was named after Mokae's mother. He died on 11 September 2009 in Las Vegas from complications of a stroke.