MELVIN VAN PEEBLES

(21 August 1932 - 21 September 2021)

Something of a black cultural icon, Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor and filmmaker. However, he was rather more than just that because he was also a playwright, a novelist and composer. Born in Chicago, he was a San Francisco cable car gripman, his experiences of which he wrote about in a novel called The Big Heart. When one of his passengers suggested he make films, his life changed. After his first short films, he went to Hollywood but without much success, so he moved to the Netherlands where he met a distributor who screened his films which led to a time in Paris where he became a writer. He translated some issues of Mad magazine into French, wrote plays, novels and short stories. His first film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass came in 1968 and it eventually led him back to Hollywood for his first US film Watermelon Man (1970) about a white man who turns black overnight. Then came Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song which gained kudos with the Black Panther movement. He continued to make films as an actor, writer and director, acting in Jaws: The Revenge, True Identity, Boomerang, Posse, Last Action Hero (1993), Blackout, Redemption Road and Peeples (2013) among others. His directing credits include Don't Play Us Cheap, Identity Crisis, Bellyful and Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (2008), a semi-autobiographical tale of an adventurer on the high seas. He produced many of his films and often wrote the music for them as well. Melvin van Peebles, who has died in Manhattan aged 89, was married to Maria Marx. They have three children, the actor-director-producer Mario Van Peebles, and the actors Megan and Max.

MICHAEL DARVELL