Tag: actor

Tim Reid

Tim Reid (born December 19, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime-time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–82), Marcel “Downtown” Brown on Simon & Simon (1983–87), Ray Campbell on Sister, Sister (1994–99) and William Barnett on That ’70s Show (2004–06). Reid starred in a CBS series, Frank’s Place, as a professor who inherits a Louisiana restaurant. Reid is the founder and president of Legacy Media Institute, a non-profit organization “dedicated to bringing together leading professionals in the film and television industry, outstanding actors, and young men and women who wish to pursue a career in the entertainment media”

Timothy Lee Reid was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and raised in the Crestwood area of Chesapeake, Virginia, formerly Norfolk County, Virginia. He is the son of William Lee and Augustine (née Wilkins) Reid. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration at Norfolk State College in 1968. Reid also became a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

After graduation, he was hired by Dupont Corporation, where he worked for three years. Reid’s entertainment career also began in 1968. He and insurance salesman Tom Dreesen met at a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting near Chicago. They were “put together to promote an anti-drug program in the local schools” and, prompted by a comment from a child, decided to form a comedy team. The team, later named “Tim and Tom,” was the first interracial comedy duo.

Reid started on the short-lived The Richard Pryor Show. Reid starred as DJ “Venus Flytrap” on the hit sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, in what is perhaps his best-known TV role. Reid starred as Lieutenant Marcel Proust “Downtown” Brown (episodes 43-127) on the detective series Simon & Simon. In 1988, Reid won an award from Viewers for Quality Television Awards as “Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series” in Frank’s Place. In 1988, the same role earned him an Image Award for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.”

In 1966, Reid married Rita Ann Sykes; they divorced on May 9, 1980. They have two children: Timothy II (born 1968) and Tori Reid (born 1971). On December 4, 1982, he married actress Daphne Maxwell Reid. Reid appeared in the initial movie version of Stephen King’s epic horror novel It. He made an appearance in three first-season episodes of Highlander: The Series. He had a starring role in the series Sister, Sister as Ray Campbell for the entire six-season run. On April 13, 2009, Reid appeared on the short-lived series Roommates as Mr. Daniels. Reid had a recurring role on That ’70s Show as William Barnett.

Reid has directed various television programs and the film Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored is based on a novel by Clifton L. Taulbert. He directed and adapted a children’s TV show called Bobobobs, which aired in the late 1980s. Reid is the creator of Stop the Madness, an after-school special video in the fight against drugs recorded on December 11, 1985.

Tim and Daphne Maxwell Reid built New Millennium Studios in 1997. Located in Petersburg, Virginia, the 57.4-acre site with its 14,850-square-foot sound studio was the only Black-owned film studio in the United States since the 1930s and also one of the largest independent film studios outside of Hollywood. New Millennium Studios was used in dozens of movie and television productions, including scenes from the 2001 film “Hearts in Atlantis,” of the Stephen King novel; parts of 2000’s “The Contender,” and elements of Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film, “Lincoln,” were all shot there. The Reid’s also produced feature films of their own. In 2008, he and Tom Dreesen wrote a book about those years called Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White.

Reid was named to the board of directors of the American Civil War Center in July 2011 at Tredegar Iron Works. On May 10, 2014, Reid received a VCU honorary doctorate for his outstanding and distinguished contributions. He delivered a commencement speech during the ceremony. During the 1980s and 1990s, Reid served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute. Due to “a lack of incentives in the state” to bring film production to Virginia, the Reid’s sold the property in March 2015 for $1.475 million to Four Square Property Management LLC, a company formed by Four Square Industrial Constructors based in Chester, Virginia.

Written by Dianne Washington

Author/Actor Regina Alston

Regina Alston was born in Bronx, New York in the times before the crack era took the city by storm. She attended St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School on Daly Avenue in the Bronx. She migrated to Harlem at the age of twelve years old. Her home was located on 128thstreet between Lenox and Fifth avenues. It was there that this shy good girl learned the inner workings of the streets and how to survive in the life. “When I moved to Harlem it was a different world from the one that I was used to. I was no longer sheltered. My mother was a single parent and we didn’t have a whole lot!” By the age of fifteen years old Regina started slinging crack cocaine to support herself and mother. “My mother was really sick. She had fibroid tumors and would bleed for days at a time. She couldn’t work and public assistance was not giving us enough money to survive. I had to do something. I just couldn’t stay broke. My daughter was living with my grandmother and my son was with me. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place”. Regina was arrested in 1996 shortly after her seventeenth birthday. She was charged with assault in the first, second and third degree. “I wasn’t thinking at all. I just flipped out. That was the type of hood that I lived in. I couldn’t let anybody punk me. I guess the worst part about that whole situation was that my mother was charged as my codefendant and convicted for a crime that she didn’t commit.” As a result Regina was sentenced to five years on probation by the Manhattan Supreme Court. “The one thing about the system is that it’s a revolving door. It’s like once you get locked up you get locked up you keep getting locked up.” Regina went on to obtain her GED while attending classes at the YWCA in Harlem. “I had this really great teacher Ms. Giscombe. She actually cared about the students. She was the third teacher to tell me that I was great writer. I didn’t follow up. I had money to make. I took the GED to get my probation officer off of my back about the weed smoke. I never believed that I needed a diploma. Everyone that I knew was getting money on the stoop.” After countless arrests and a battle with drug addiction Regina decided that it was time for a change. “I just had my baby girl and I wanted to raise her by myself. I had to do something right.” Regina sought treatment for her addiction and returned to school. While Regina was attending classes at The College of New Rochelle she met her mentor Vera Edwards of Streetline. “I love Vee like a second mom. She guides me with her wisdom and keeps me encouraged. I know that I can call her about anything and I will always receive the best advice with no judgement”. With Vera’s help Regina was casted into Rodent the Urban Soap Opera and published her first articles on Streetline Video Online News Magazine.  During her last two years of college Regina lost her mother to Cancer and her father to a severe heart attack and respiratory infection. “I suffered with depression after my mother died. Alcohol was my escape but I was not going to give up. I knew that my mother would have never wanted that. I had to keep going. I had to push pass the pain. Regina has now fulfilled her course requirements to obtain a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She is currently employed in a substance abuse treatment program. Regina has obtained her CASAC-T certification and is giving back in the substance abuse treatment field. “I am focused on my career but writing and acting is my passion in life.” Regina is in the process of writing a book about her life. “ I just want others to know that despite whatever you have been through there is always a rainbow after the rain”.

Rosalind Cash

Rosalind Cash (December 31, 1938 – October 31, 1995) was an American singer and actress. Her best known film role is as Charlton Heston’s character’s love interest Lisa, in the 1971 science fiction film, The Omega Man. To soap opera audiences, she is best remembered as Mary Mae Ward on General Hospital from 1994 to 1995.

Cash was the second of four children. Her siblings were John (1936–1998), Robert, and Helen. All were born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her older brother, Col. John A. Cash, enjoyed a long illustrious career with the United States Army, serving in the Defense Intelligence Agency.[citation needed] He died in 1998 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Cash graduated with honours from Atlantic City High School in 1956. She attended City College of New York. Her career extended to theater, television, film and recording.

Cash appeared in the 1962 revival of Fiorello! and was an original member of the Negro Ensemble Company, founded in 1968. In 1973, she played the role of Goneril in King Lear at the New York Shakespeare Festival alongside James Earl Jones’s Lear.

Cash appeared on the New York area television show Callback! which featured musical director Barry Manilow. The episode Cash was featured on was filmed on Monday evening March 31, 1969 at the Village Gate in New York City. The episode aired on Saturday, April 19, 1969 at 3:30 p. m. on CBS. Cash performed “God Bless The Child” on the show, but sadly no recordings have yet to turn up. Her other television credits include The Cosby Show, What’s Happening!!, A Different World, Good Times, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, Barney Miller, Benson, Police Woman, Family Ties, Head of the Class, and many others. Cash was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on the Public Broadcasting Service production of Go Tell it on the Mountain. She had an amusing cameo on The Golden Girls, playing Dorothy’s future daughter-in-law. In 1996, she was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, for her role on General Hospital. Also, she was Nonnie Sweet in the episode of L.A. Law titled “Auld L’Anxiety.”

Cash’s films included Klute (1971), The New Centurions (1972) with George C. Scott, Uptown Saturday Night (1974) with Sidney Poitier, and Wrong Is Right (1982). In 1995, she appeared in Tales from the Hood, her last film appearance.

Cash supplied the voices of Sesame Street Muppet Roosevelt Franklin’s mother and sister, Mary Frances, on the 1970 record album The Year of Roosevelt Franklin, Gordon’s Friend from Sesame Street alongside Matt Robinson’s voiceovers for Roosevelt and his brother, Baby Ray, and friend, A.B. Cito.

Cash died of cancer on October 31, 1995 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, director, and producer. He has received three Golden Globe awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for the historical war drama film Glory (1989) and Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in the crime thriller Training Day (2001).

Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1980s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in The Hurricane (1999), football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007), and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). He has been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of directors Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua and Tony Scott. In 2016, Washington was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.

In 2002, Washington made his directorial debut with the biographical film Antwone Fisher.

His second directorial effort was The Great Debaters, released in 2007. Washington’s third directorial effort, Fences, in which he also starred, was released on December 16, 2016, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr., was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He has an older sister, Lorice, and a younger brother. His father, Virginia-born Reverend Denzel Washington, was an ordained Pentecostal minister, who worked for the Water Department and at a local department store. His mother, Lennis, a beauty parlor owner, was born in Georgia and raised in Harlem.

Washington was not allowed to watch movies by his parents, who divorced when he was fourteen. As a youth, he went through a rebellious stage, and several of his friends went to prison. His mother responded to his behavioral problems by sending him to preparatory school.

Washington later enrolled at Fordham University, where he discovered acting and earned a degree in journalism, while studying at Fordham, he came to prominence at the Negro Ensemble Company playing “Peterson” in the Pulitzer Prize winning play ‘A Soldier’s Play.” His first film role was in the 1975 made-for-television movie, “Wilma.” His big break came when he starred in the television hospital drama, “St. Elsewhere.” He was one of a few actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run.

In 1983, Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson, whom he met on the set of his first screen role. The couple has four children, John David, who signed a football contract with the St. Louis Rams after playing college ball at Morehouse, Katia, Olivia and Malcolm. In 1995, the couple renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.

Washington is known globally for his acting ability; in 1987, after appearing in several minor theatrical films and stage roles, Washington starred as South African anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom,” a role for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989, Washington won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant, self-possessed slave in the film “Glory,” in 1992.

He was nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role in “Malcolm X.” In 1999, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, “Hurricane.” In 2001, Washington won Best Actor in a Leading Role in “Training Day.” Other film credits include “John and Antwone Fisher” (2002), “Out of Time” (2003), “Man on Fire” (2004), “The Manchurian Candidate” (2004), “Inside Man” (2006), “Deja Vu” (2006), “American Gangster,” and “The Great Debaters” (2007).

On May 18, 1991, Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University, for having “impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent”. In 2011, he donated $2 million to Fordham for an endowed chair of the theater department, as well as US$250,000 to establish a theater-specific scholarship at the school. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Morehouse College on May 20, 2007 and an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania on May 16, 2011.

In 2008, Washington visited Israel with a delegation of African-American artists in honor of the state’s 60th birthday.[60] In 2010, he visited Israel again to meet with his friend, head of the Messianic Jews’ congregation in Haifa.

In April 2014, Washington presented at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition with Bryan Cranston, Idina Menzel and Fran Drescher, after raising donations at his Broadway show A Raisin in the Sun.

Written by Dianne Washington