Robert Hooks Movies and Career Information

Robert Dean "Bobby" Hooks (born 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. 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 Philadelphia tryout. He continued to originate roles on the New York stage in such classics as Dutchman, A Taste of Honey and Where's Daddy? for which he won the Theatre World Award. He was the first African American lead on a television drama, the original