Obba Babatundé Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Obba Babatundé
Acting
Biography
Obba Babatundé (born December 1, 1951) is an American actor of stage and screen, known for his Emmy-nominated performance in the television movie Miss Evers' Boys, a NAACP Image Award-nominated performance in the TV movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and a Tony Award-nominated role for his performance as C.C. White in the original cast of the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Babatundé was a protege of Sammy Davis, Jr., who said of him, "This is the only cat who can do everything I can do." Babatundé does dance, sing, play instruments, execute impersonations, including his portrayal of Davis, aided by their similarity in energy, size and talent, tap dancing and performing on multiple instruments. In fall 2009, Babatundé played Davis in the title role of "Sammy: Once in a Lifetime," a world premiere musical at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Early in 2000, Babatundé partnered with writer/producer Ruth Adkins Robinson for a series of TV projects including "TV in Black: The First 50 Years," "Oscar's Black Odyssey: From Hattie to Hallie" and "Dorthy Dandridge: An American Beauty". The pair have projects that will take them through 2011. His TV roles have often portrayed authority figures, such as a recurring guest-starring role as a high school principal on Dawson's Creek, an appearance as a judge in a two-part episode of Any Day Now, and as the father of the main characters on Half & Half. He also played Harvard college Dean Cain in the movie How High, as well as the role of Willie Long in the movie Life, and co-starred as an attorney in Philadelphia and as a senator in the 2004 reprise of The Manchurian Candidate. He also played the director in season 3 of Friends in an episode titled "The One with All the Jealousy". Other TV shows he has had recurring roles on include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Chicago Hope, Rocket Power, Static Shock, and Karen Sisco. He played a small but pivotal role as a doorman/bellhop in the film That Thing You Do! and also appeared in The Wild Thornberrys Movie as the voice of Boko. He played a famous producer known as Gordy Berry on two episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the 1998 miniseries, The Temptations, he played the founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy. Babatundé is adept at American sign language and had used this talent in many roles including on one NYPD Blue. His recorded work includes a performance with the New York pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs on the 2007 album Sack Full of Dreams. The actor/producer is also an avid horseman and is a highly regarded rider and trainer in the Rodeo Circuit, including the annual Bill Pickett Rodeol. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmography Movies
Acting
The Silence of the Lambs
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
After the Sunset
An FBI agent is suspicious of two master thieves, quietly enjoying their retirement near what may - or may not - be the biggest score of their careers.
Material Girls
Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth.
Life
Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.
How High
Jamal and Silas, two ordinary guys who smoke something magical, pass their college entrance exams with flying colors and end up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.
The Eye
Violinist Sydney Wells was accidentally blinded by her sister Helen when she was five years old. She submits to a cornea transplantation, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she is seeing dead people.
Multiplicity
Construction worker Doug Kinney finds that the pressures of his working life, combined with his duties to his wife Laura and daughter Jennifer leaves him with little time for himself. However, he is approached by geneticist Dr. Owen Leeds, who offers Doug a rather unusual solution to his problems: cloning.
Undercover Blues
When fun-loving American agents Jeff and Jane Blue are called back from maternity leave for a special assignment in New Orleans, the spy parents decide to skip the sitter and give their bouncing baby girl the adventure of a lifetime.
City of Lies
Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole has spent years trying to solve his biggest case -- the murders of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur -- but after two decades, the investigation remains open. Jack Jackson, a reporter desperate to save his reputation and career, is determined to find out why. In search of the truth, the two team up and unravel a growing web of institutional corruption and lies.
The Manchurian Candidate
Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco finds himself having terrible nightmares. He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate Sergeant Raymond Shaw, now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being. As Marco's doubts deepen, Shaw's political power grows, and, when Marco finds a mysterious implant embedded in his back, the memory of what really happened begins to return.
Production
Angels Around Me
(Long Synopsis) "Crime boss Big D rules the streets of Boston with an iron fist and a legion of henchmen. When it comes to business, anyone who crosses him is as good as dead. But drugs and prostitution are a lucrative business and everyone wants a cut. When a club owner and a dirty cop start moving in on his territory, Big D’s crew is sent to control the streets. In the fight for money and power broken trust, greed and deception will bring them down … but who will lift them up?"
American Bad Boy
Samuel's dream of buying a recording studio, making a hit record, and becoming a famous hip-hop artist has hit a snag. The money he borrowed to make it all happen is long over due. With the money all gone and the record far from finished, he becomes desperate for a solution. So when "The Bruce" - unscrupulous business man and owner of a string of male strip clubs - gives him only six months to pay back sixty-thousand dollars or say good-bye to his dream, Samuel knows what he's got to do. To make it all work, he going to take it all off. With his looks and his talents, raising enough money to pay off the loan and complete the record ought to be a cinch, but there's still a hitch. For his plan to work he'll have to keep it a secret for a number of reasons.
Noble Intentions
A teenage boy reluctantly turns to the streets to earn $6,000 a month for his mother's cancer medicine and quickly discovers that street money does not come easy. When an old family friend makes him a syndicate boss, jealousy and greed immediately turn his friends against him. With pressure mounting from all sides, he must choose between saving his mother’s life and saving his own.
Oscar's Black Odyssey: From Hattie to Halle
Between 1939 and 2002, Black actors and Actresses received a combined total of 30 Academy Award nominations - only a handful made the odyssey to the podium to possess the Golden Man. This special program is filled with rare footage, photographs and long lost trailers of performances in Oscar-recognized films from GONE WITH THE WIND to MONSTER'S BALL.
If I Tell You I Have to Kill You
When a professor of religious studies is forced to investigate why his students are being murdered, he discovers what ended his own life and is then reborn.
Mississippi Scholar
A young man fights for the one thing that can get him out of life's vicious cycle: an education. James Wilson is a gifted scholar living in a dark world surrounded by human obstacles. Fighting within his inner circle threatens his chance. James' teacher pries to see what his future can hold, but tragedy strikes, and it is enough to make James doubt it all.
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