Refusing to work in movies without control, Van Peebles wrote and produced several plays and musicals on Broadway, including the Tony-nominated 'Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death' and 'Don't Play Us Cheap.' He also co-wrote the 1977 Richard Pryor film 'Greased Lighting,' about Wendell Scott, the first Black race car driver. The money he earned would bankroll 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' (which has recently received a 4K restoration for its 50th anniversary). Van Peebles was hired to direct the satire 'Watermelon Man,' starring Godfrey Cambridge as a White bigot who wakes up one day as a Black man. It won a critics' prize at the San Francisco Film Festival.Īsked by CBS Station KPIX in 1967 about how one rises from cable car grip man to internationally recognized film director, Van Pebbles said, 'Well, you don't pay attention to what people tell you.' In Paris he adapted his work into French, and made a feature film: 'La Permission/The Story of a Three Day Pass' (1967), about an affair between a French woman and a Black U.S. The job offers he received in Hollywood didn't rise far above parking attendant, so he moved to Holland, studying astronomy and taking classes at the Dutch National Theatre.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, he joined the Air Force, then moved to Mexico and worked as a portrait painter, then moved to San Francisco where he wrote short stories and made short films while driving cable cars. His road to making what became the #1 film in America was circuitous. The colored intelligentsia were not too happy about it.' In 2002 Van Peebles complained that subsequent Black films failed to address the political, instead sensationalizing crime: 'What Hollywood did – they suppressed the political message, added caricature – and blaxploitation was born. Despite its low budget and limited distribution (it initially received an X rating), the film became a box office hit, inspiring Hollywood to chase after a lucrative but untapped Black film market. It was a violent tale of a Black street hustler on the run after killing police officers who were beating a Black revolutionary. The best-known work of Melvin Van Peebles (August 21, 1932-September 22, 2021) was the 1971 movie 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,' an indie film that he wrote, produced, directed, starred in and scored. He was a man of letters, music, theater and film, earning the sobriquet 'Godfather of Black Cinema' for helping to usher in a wave of 'blaxploitation' movies in the 1970s that influenced generations of filmmakers. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery. A look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.īy senior producer David Morgan.

Pre civilization egypt age hacked