Melvin Van Peebles has died at 89. Considered by many to be the godfather of modern Black cinema, Van Peebles was an influential link to a younger generation of filmmakers that includes Spike Lee and John Singleton
, his musical about black urban life, to Broadway and received Tony nominations for best book and best original score in 1972. A year later, he received another book nom for, centering on a devil who attempts to break up a party in Harlem. The two musicals garnered nine Tony noms in all.Identity Crisis, a Western about African-American soldiers who mutiny against their racist white officer, and contributed a song, “Cruel Jim Crow,” to that movie.
, which he hoped would serve as his calling card into the motion-picture industry. But when he was unable to find directorial work in L.A., he, his wife and their children, Megan and Mario, moved to Europe. In Holland, he studied with the Dutch National Theatre, did some acting and added the “Van” to his last name.
After his marriage dissolved, Van Peebles headed to Paris, where he authored five novels and wrote and directed his first feature,, an adaptation of his novel about a love affair between an African-American soldier and a French woman. It won acclaim in Europe, was retitledfor U.S. audiences and chosen as the French entry for the San Francisco Film Festival in 1967.Three-Day Pass
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