Robert Hooks | |
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| Born | Bobby Dean Hooks (1937-04-18)April 18, 1937 (age 88) Washington, D.C., United States |
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| Years active | 1960–present |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse | Lorrie Marlow (aka LorrieGay Marlow) (m. 2008) |
| Children | Kevin Hooks, Eric Hooks, Cecilia Onibudo, Christopher Carter (né Hooks), Kiyo Tarpley, Robert (Rob) Hooks, Jr., Shelly Wulff née Michelle Thomas |
| Parent(s) | Mae Bertha "Bert" Ward Hooks (9/27/11 – 12/27/78); Edward Hooks (d. 1939) |
| Website | Robert Hooks Robert Hooks – Cultural Architect Facebook |
Robert Hooks (bornBobby Dean Hooks; April 18, 1937) is an Americanactor,producer, andactivist.[1] Along withDouglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, he foundedThe Negro Ensemble Company.[2][3] The Negro Ensemble Company is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company, and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.[4]
The youngest of five children, Hooks was born inFoggy Bottom, Washington, D.C., to Mae Bertha (née Ward), aseamstress, and Edward Hooks, who had moved fromRocky Mount, North Carolina, with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh, Charles Edward "Charlie", and James Walter "Jimmy". Named Bobby Dean Hooks at birth, Robert was their first child born in Washington, D.C., and the first to be born in a hospital. His father, Edward, died in a work accident on the railroad in 1939.
Hooks attended Stevens Elementary School. In 1945, at the insistence of his sister Bernice who was doing community arts outreach for youngsters at Francis Junior High School, he performed the lead in his first play,The Pirates of Penzance, at the age of nine. From the ages of six to 12, Bobby Dean journeyed with his siblings toLucama, North Carolina, to work the tobacco fields for his uncle'ssharecropping farm as a way to help earn money for the coming school year in D.C.
In 1954, just asBrown vs. Board of Education was being implemented in the north, Hooks moved toPhiladelphia to be with his mother, her second husband, and his half-siblings, Safia Abdullah (née Sharon Dickerson), George E. Dickerson, Charles Dickerson, Annette Dickerson, Margie Dickerson, Robert Dickerson. Hooks experienced his first integrated school experience atWest Philadelphia High School. Hooks soon joined the drama club and began acting in plays byWilliam Shakespeare andSamuel Beckett. Hooks graduated in 1956, passing on a scholarship toTemple University in order to pursue a career as a stage actor at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongsideCharles Dierkop andBruce Dern, with whom he second-acted plays doing their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia), while working at Browning King, a men's tailor shop at Fourteenth and Chestnut Streets.[5][6]
Having trained at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre in Philadelphia, and after seeingA Raisin in the Sun in its Philadelphia tryout in February 1959, Hooks moved to New York to pursue acting. In April 1960, as Bobby Dean Hooks, he made his Broadway debut inA Raisin in the Sun, replacingLouis Gossett Jr., who would be doing the film version. Hooks then continued to do its national tour. He then stepped into the Broadway production ofA Taste of Honey, replacingBilly Dee Williams; then repeating the same national tour trajectory as he had done for "Raisin..." the previous year.
In early 1962, he next appeared as the lead inJean Genet'sThe Blacks, replacingJames Earl Jones as the male lead, leaving briefly that same year to appear on Broadway again inTiger, Tiger Burning Bright, before stepping back into the lead role inThe Blacks in 1963. He then returned to Broadway, first inBallad for Bimshire and then in the short-lived 1964 David Merrick revival ofThe Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More (as a character created byTennessee Williams for this revival) and starringTallulah Bankhead andTab Hunter in his only stage performance. Immediately thereafter, on March 24, 1964, he originated the role of Clay inAmiri Baraka'sDutchman. With this play, on the advice ofRoscoe Lee Brown, Hooks became known as, Robert Hooks. He also originated roles on the New York stage inWhere's Daddy? for which he won theTheatre World Award and he was nominated for Best Male Lead in a Musical forHallelujah Baby while he was simultaneously starring in David Susskind'sN.Y.P.D.—the second African-American lead on a television drama, following Bill Cosby on “I Spy”.
In 1968, Hooks was the host of the new public affairs television programLike It Is.[7]
Hooks was nominated for aTony for his lead role in the musicalHallelujah, Baby!, has received both the Pioneer Award and theNAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been inducted into theBlack Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He also won anEmmy for hisPBS specialVoices of Our People.
Significant roles for which Hooks is known include Reeve Scott inHurry Sundown (1967), Mr. T. in the blaxploitation filmTrouble Man (1972), grandpa Gene Donovan in the comedySeventeen Again (2000), and Fleet Admiral Morrow inStar Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). He also appeared on television in an episode of theNBC crime drama seriesThe Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978, and portrayed Doctor Walcott in the 1980s television seriesDynasty.
In 1964, as a result of a speaking engagement at the Chelsea Civil Rights Committee (then connected to the Hudson Guild Settlement House), Hooks founded The Group Theatre Workshop, a tuition-free environment for disadvantaged urban teens who expressed a desire to explore acting. Among the instructors wereBarbara Ann Teer,Frances Foster,Hal DeWindt,Lonne Elder III, andRonnie Mack. Alumni includeAntonio Fargas,Hattie Winston, andDaphne Maxwell Reid.
The Group Theatre Workshop was folded into the tuition-free training arm of the Negro Ensemble Company, founded in 1967 withDouglas Turner Ward andGerald S. Krone,[3] with a $1.3 million grant from theFord Foundation under the auspices ofW. McNeil Lowry.[2][8]
From 1969 to 1972, Hooks served as an original board member ofBlack Academy of Arts and Letters, located in New York, alongsideC. Eric Lincoln, President;John O. Killens,Alvin F. Poussaint, andCharles White. Chartered by the State of New York, its mission was to bring together black artists and scholars from around the world. Additional members includedJulian Adderley,Alvin Ailey,Margaret Walker,James Baldwin,Imamu Baraka,Romare Bearden,Harry Belafonte,Lerone Bennett,Arna Bontemps,Ossie Davis,Ruby Dee Davis,St. Clair Drake,Ernest Dunbar,Katherine Dunham,Lonne Elder III,Duke Ellington,Alex Haley,Ruth Inge Hardison,Vertis Hayes,Chester Himes,Lena Horne,Jacob Lawrence,Elma Lewis,Henry Lewis,Paule Marshall,Donald McKayle,Arthur Mitchell,Frederick O’Neal,Gordon Parks,Sidney Poitier,Benjamin Quarles,Lloyd Richards,Lucille D. Roberts, andNina Simone.
In response to his hometown1968 Washington, D.C., riots, in the wake of theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and aided by a small grant from the Eugene andAgnes E. Meyer Foundation, Hooks took a leave of absence from the Negro Ensemble Company to create The D.C. Black Repertory Company (1970–1981). The company was intended as a further exploration of the ability of the arts to create healing. Thea capella groupSweet Honey in the Rock was created and developed within its workshop process.
The Inner Voices (Lorton Prison arts training program, 1971) proved to be a result of the beneficial effect of the repertory company in the D.C. area. In response to a direct plea from an inmate,Rhozier "Roach" Brown, who was serving a life sentence in Lorton, Hooks' D.C. Black Repertory Company structured the first prison-based arts program in the United States. While it is the norm now, it was then a revolutionary attempt at rehabilitation through the arts. Eventually The Inner Voices performed more than 500 times in other prisons, including a Christmas special entitled, "Holidays, Hollowdays." Due to Roach's work, PresidentGerald Ford commuted his sentence on Christmas Day, 1975.[9]
His relocation to the West Coast redirected Hooks' approach to parity in the arts with his involvement with The Bay Area Multicultural Arts Initiative (1988) as a board member and grant facilitator-judge. Funded by monies from a unique coalition made up of theSan Francisco Foundation (a community foundation); Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, andThe National Endowment for the Arts, the function of this organization was the funding of deserving local multicultural arts organizations.
In 1992, Hooks co-founded (with writerLonne Elder III) Arts in Action. Located in South Central Los Angeles, this was a film and television training center established to guide individuals who aspired to careers in film production. It formulated strategies and training for securing entry-level jobs. Courses included: career development workshops; pre-production and production for film and television; creative problem solving in production management; directing for stage and screen—principles and practices; also the craft of assistant directors, script supervisor, technicians, wardrobe, make-up, etc.
The Negro Ensemble Company of Los Angeles (1994–1997) was created because so many New York members and original members had relocated to the West Coast. Hooks, as founder and executive director, askedDenise Nicholas,Denzel Washington,James Earl Jones,Laurence Fishburne,Richard Roundtree,Samuel L. Jackson, all alumni from New York Negro Ensemble Company, to serve as board members. The goal of the Negro Ensemble Company of Los Angeles was to be a new and innovative multi-ethnic cultural project that strived to achieve the community effectiveness and professional success of its parent organization.
Hooks is the father of actor, television andfilm directorKevin Hooks. He married Lorrie Gay Marlow[10] (actress, author, artist) on June 15, 2008. Previously, he was married to Yvonne Hickman and Rosie Lee Hooks.[11]
In 2021,Emory University began adding to its official archives material documenting Hooks' career, including scripts, printed material, contracts and financial records, notes, correspondence, writings, books and periodicals, audiovisual and digital files.[12]
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