Melvin Van Peebles
Acting
Born 1932-08-21
Died 2021-09-21
Chicago, Illinois, USA
73 credits
Commander of the Legion of Honour 1
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame 1
Awards
Nominated for 1 Tony Award
Tony Awards 1 nominated
- 1972 Best Original Score Nominated Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
Commander of the Legion of Honour 1 won
- 2001 Commander of the Legion of Honour Won
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame 1 won
- 1976 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Won
Award data from Wikidata (CC0). Coverage may be incomplete.
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Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which led to the creation of the blaxploitation genre. although critic Roger Ebert did not consider this example of Van Peebles' work to be an exploitation film. He followed this up with the musical, Don't Play Us Cheap, based on his own stage play, and continued to make films, write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades; his final films include the French-language film Le Conte du ventre plein (2000) and the absurdist film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (2008). His son, filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles, appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss!.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 73
Acting
48 credits
Homicide: Life on the Street
Girlfriends
Dream On
Last Action Hero
The Shining
Jaws: The Revenge
Hollywood Black
Posse
American Swing
Pour le plaisir
Terminal Velocity
Panther
Seize millions de jeunes
Identity Crisis
Fist of the North Star
Hallmark Hall of Fame
True Identity
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
The Sophisticated Gents
Peeples
Hard Luck
The Hebrew Hammer
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
Farewell, Babylon!
Armed
O.C. and Stiggs
Watermelon Man
Blackout
Redemption Road
BaadAsssss Cinema
Love Kills
Gang in Blue
Classified X
Riot
René Vautier, le rebelle
Baadasssss!
The Black List: Volume Two
America
Wattstax
Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood
Satchmo: The Life of Louis Armstrong
Calm at Sunset
Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
Don't Play Us Cheap
Midnight Blue, Vol. 3: Celebrities Edition
Directors on Directing
SMUT
Writing
12 credits
CBS Schoolbreak Special
Panther
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
The Sophisticated Gents
Greased Lightning
Slogan
Classified X
Tales of Erotica
Bellyful
Don't Play Us Cheap
The Story of a Three-Day Pass
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
Other credits
10 credits
Living Single
Boomerang
Identity Crisis
Sex: The Revolution
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Sonny Spoon
Watermelon Man
Bellyful
Don't Play Us Cheap
The Story of a Three-Day Pass
Directing
9 credits
The Outer Limits
Identity Crisis
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Watermelon Man
Gang in Blue
Tales of Erotica
Bellyful
Don't Play Us Cheap
The Story of a Three-Day Pass
Producing
5 credits
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