Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks, April 18, 1937) is an American actor of films, television and stage. With a career as a producer and political activist to his credit, he is most recognizable to the public for his over 100 roles in films and television, as well as his political and civil rights activities. He is the father of actor/director/producer Kevin Hooks. Hooks, youngest of five children, was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C., the son of Bertha (née Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks, who worked on the railroad track, where he died. Hooks has been regarded, variously, as a gifted artist who broke the color barriers in stage, film and television before the term "colorblind casting" even existed, and a leading man when there were no African American matinee idols. He won a New York Drama Critics Award for his Broadway debut performance in the original production of A Raisin in the Sun — the very show that inspired him to move to New York after seeing its out-of-town...