Roscoe lee browne gay
There was once a great black performer, Meshach Taylor, a hair younger than the Morgan Freeman generation, the brilliant black heterosexual thespians capable of embracing their feminine side (all that Shakespeare training, perhaps). Meshach played “Hollywood Montrose,” a flamboyant homosexual window-dresser who befriends a dim unbent white boy called Jonathan Switcher (haha!) in a dumber-than-bricks ’80s B-movie, Mannequin. Taylor wasn’t the lead, but provided the only sparkle in a dud film that stood as the most widely seen and appreciated depiction of a gay dark character in the same rich era that gave us the sweltering bromance of goofy light “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and brooding jet Keith David in John Carpenter’s genius They Live. A decade before Morgan Freeman himself and Brad Pitt would play similar homo-social games in Se7en, it was Taylor alone who held the flame aloft for black lgbtq+ dudes in cinema. Ugh.
Like all dark actors of his day, Taylor was also an accomplished theater performer and about 15 years ago he played the candelabra, Lumière, in Broadway’s boffo Disney musical Beauty and the Beast. At that second, he said to my friend John, also a genius actor of stage and
The Roscoe Lee Browne Pseudo-Centennial
If some reputable sources (The New York Times, the Associated Press, Variety, the U.S. Congress, et al.) are to be credited today would be the 100th birthday of Roscoe Lee Browne. However, Browne himself, and the Social Security Administration confirmed 1922 to have been the actual year.
Browne was an performer I grew up admiring in the ’70s. Because of his great classical chops, a awesome voice, precise diction, a certain poise and sleekness of manner, I always assumed that he was from the West Indies, and he was indeed often cast as characters from the islands or former British colonies in Africa. Browne was actually from Woodbury, New Jersey, he was simply part of that generation of black actors (like James Earl Jones, Ossie Davis, et al) who sought objective excellence at the extreme levels, taking a traditional path to doing so. Appreciate Paul Robeson before them, they interpret as “classical”. They embody an utopian aesthetic as opposed to one that “points a mirror”, the latter a strategy we maintain to identify with “the Method”. Sadly, fewer than scant go the classical route any more, f
Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and director known for his rich voice and dignified bearing. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his serve in television and film.
In 1976, Browne was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Production by a Supporting Star in a Comedy or Drama Series for his work on ABC's Barney Miller. In 1986, he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on NBC's The Cosby Show. In 1992, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Thespian in a Play for his performance as "Holloway" in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
In 1995, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Unmatched Performer in an Animated Program for his recital as "The Kingpin" in Spider-Man.
Browne was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1977 and pos
Queer Places:
Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
83 Carpenter St, Woodbury, NJ 08096
Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922[2] – April 11, 2007) was an American character actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film. He is perhaps best known for his role as Saunders in Soap (1977–1981).
Born in Woodbury, Fresh Jersey, Browne was the fourth son of Baptist minister Sylvanus S. Browne and Lovie Lee Usher. He graduated from Woodbury Junior-Senior High School in 1939.[8] Browne attended historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. While there, he became a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1946. During Planet War II, he served in Italy with the United States Army's 92nd Infantry Division and organised the Division's track and field team.[9] After the war, he undertook postgraduate work at Middlebury Colle