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Celebrating Bill CosbyThe All-Star CastAn all-star cast of actors, performers and musicians celebrated the life and humor of Bill Cosby. "Bill" Russell
"Bill" Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a 12-time All-Star, his awards and achievements include eleven NBA championships as a player with the Boston Celtics in 13 seasons (including two NBA championships as player/head coach), and he is credited with having raised defensive play in the NBA to a new level. Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team. Less known about Bill is that he was the first professional athlete to host Saturday Night Live. Bill is also credited with playing another major role in bringing the NBA into the modern era when he agreed to become the commentator analyst in 1980 as the NBA signed its first major network contract with CBS and went to prime time. Russell has also been an aggressive advocate for civil rights, equality and diversity. A sought after mentor, Russell is active on the Board of Directors of the National Mentoring Partnership. Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner, has worked as an actor, film director, producer, writer, and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards during his career. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and his parents were Jewish immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was educated at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and served in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, Reiner performed in several Broadway musicals. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. In 1959, Reiner developed a television pilot, Head of the Family, based on his experience on the Caesar shows. However, the network didn't like him in the lead role. In 1961, the recast and retitled show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, became a hit. In addition to usually writing the show, Reiner occasionally appeared as temperamental show host "Alan Brady." Reiner began his directing career on the Van Dyke show. Balancing writing, directing, producing, and acting, Reiner has wide worked on a range of movies and television programs. In 2000, Reiner was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Reiner was married for 64 years to Estelle, before her passing in October, 2008. They are also parents of three children, actor-turned director, Rob Reiner; Annie Reiner, a poet-painter-playwright-psychoanalyst; and Lucas Reiner, a painter-screenwriter director. They are the proud grandparents of five grandchildren. Chris Rock
Chris Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Brooklyn, New York. He began doing standup comedy in 1985 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II. Rock became a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1990, which gave him national exposure. In 1991, he released his first comedy album Born Suspect and won acclaim for his dramatic role as a crack addict in the film New Jack City. He went on to write, create, star, and produce the rap comedy CB4 in 1993, a satire of the world of hardcore rap, which opened number one at the box office. After the success of his stand-up acts and HBO specials in the late 1990s, he began receiving major parts in films including Dogma, Beverly Hills Ninja, Lethal Weapon 4, Nurse Betty, The Longest Yard, Bad Company, and a starring role in Down to Earth. Rock has also increasingly worked behind the camera, both as a writer and director of Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife. In the fall of 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris, based on Rock's school days, of which he is the executive producer and narrator. Chris Rock has garnered three Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and was honored in 2006 with HBO's esteemed "Comedian Award," at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival. Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory was born October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Missouri. He is an African American comedian and civil rights activist whose social satire changed the way Americans thought. Gregory began performing comedy in the mid-1950s while serving in the army. In the hopes of performing comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago, where he became part of a new generation of black comedians that broke with the minstrel tradition, which presented stereotypical black characters. He entered the national comedy scene in 1961 when Chicago's Playboy Club booked him as a replacement for the white comedian, "Professor" Irwin Corey, as a direct request from publisher Hugh Hefner. Until then, Gregory had worked mostly at small clubs with predominantly black audiences. His tenure as a replacement for Corey was so successful that the Playboy Club offered him a contract extension from several weeks to three years. By 1962 Gregory had become a nationally known headline performer, selling out nightclubs, making numerous national television appearances, and recording comedy albums. From an early age, Gregory demonstrated a strong sense of social justice. While a student at Sumner High School in St. Louis, he led a March protesting segregated schools. Later, inspired by the work of leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Gregory took part in the Civil Rights Movement and used his celebrity status to draw attention to such issues as segregation and disfranchisement. Gregory's autobiography, Nigger, was published in 1963 prior to the assassination of President Kennedy, and became the number one best-selling book in America. Over the decades it has sold in excess of seven million copies. Gregory has remained a social activist and continues to perform. He and his wife, Lillian, have 10 children. James DePriest
James DePriest is currently Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School and former Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, where he served as Music Director from 1980 to 2003. Over the past three decades he has served as Music Director of L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden's Malmö Symphony, L'Orchestre Philhar-monique de Monte Carlo and, from 2005 to 2008, Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor he has appeared with virtually every major North American orchestra, and abroad he has conducted in Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Manchester, Melbourne, Munich, Prague, Rome, Rotterdam, Seoul, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Vienna. He made his London debut with the London Symphony at the Barbican in April 2005. James DePreist appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival and at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall with the Juilliard orchestras and has led the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood and the Philadelphia Orchestra at theMannMusic Center on a number of occasions. With more than 50 recordings to his credit, James DePreist has a substantial presence in the recording arena. Born in Philadelphia in 1936, he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005 the President of the United States presented James DePreist with the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence. He is the nephew of the legendary contralto, Marian Anderson. Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Massapequa, Long Island. He graduated from Queens College in 1976 and after graduation went straight to the New York comedy club circuit. His career took off after his first successful spot on Carson's The Tonight Show in 1981 at age 27. Appearances on Letterman and Merv Griffin shows followed, and Jerry became a leading standup comedian. In 1989 Jerry teamed up with fellow stand-up Larry David and created Seinfeld Chronicles for Castle Rock Entertainment. The show became the hit NBC Television series Seinfeld. In 1998, after nine extraordinarily successful years, the last episode aired to a national audience of 75 million people. In the TV Guide listing of the "Greatest Shows of All Time," Seinfeld was voted number one. After retiring from his hit series, Seinfeld immediately returned to what he loved most: stand-up. He performed to a sold out, week-long engagement at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. The last show was telecast live as an HBO special, I'm Telling You For The Last Time in August 1998. In 2001, Seinfeld began creating a new stand-up act which was chronicled in the documentary, Comedian, a behind the scenes look at the world of stand-up comedy. In 2003, Jerry penned >Halloween, a best-selling children's book which has become a household perennial for both kids and adults alike. In 2007, Jerry starred, wrote, and produced the DreamWorks animated film Bee Movie. He can now be seen performing stand-up across the country on an ongoing basis, offering his fans a constant flow of new material. Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent composer and arranger. Jimmy is the middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers (Percy Heath/bass and Tootie Heath/ drums), and is the father of Mtume. He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. In 1948, at the age of 21, he performed in the First International Jazz Festival in Paris with McGhee, sharing the stage with Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart, and Erroll Garner. During his career, Jimmy Heath has performed on more than 100 record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers and twelve as a leader. Jimmy has also written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists. Len Chandler
Len Chandler was born in Akron, Ohio in 1935, and he showed an interest in music at an early age. At eight, he began playing piano and at 12, he started studying classical music. He learned to play the oboe so he could join the high school band, and during his senior year joined the Akron Symphony. He eventually earned his B.A. in Music Education from the University of Akron, moved to New York City, and received an M.A. from Columbia University. Chandler showed no interest in folk music until a college professor introduced him to Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and Leadbelly. He began performing folk music that had been converted into classical pieces with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. While enrolled at Columbia, Chandler began working as a counselor at St. Barnabas House, a home for neglected children. The counselors would take the children to hear folk singing in Washington Square in Greenwich Village. He started borrowing other people's guitars and learning chords and folk songs. Soon he found himself making $25 a week playing at the Gaslight. By the early 1960s Chandler felt himself drawn to the Civil Rights Movement. He sang at demonstrations and rallies, and won a reputation as a protest songwriter. In the early 1970s he formed the Alternative Chorus-Songwriters Showcase to promote new talent. Chandler began recording as a solo artist in 1967 with To Be a Man on Columbia, and followed with The Lovin' People the same year. Chandler now travels with his wife Olga James and does occasional concerts with his Partner in Rhyme, Dr. Ross Altman. Malcolm Jamal-Warner
Malcolm Jamal-Warner is an actor and director who first rose to national prominence starring on the long-running classic television series The Cosby Show. He has also received accolades as a poet and bass player. Warner, along with his jazz-funk band Miles Long, has performed in several major jazz festivals. Warner made his feature film debut in Drop Zone and can be seen in the comedy adventure Fools Gold starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, and Donald Sutherland. He also co-starred in the independent films, Restaurant with Adreinne Brody, A Fare to Remember, and The List with Wayne Brady. On stage, he has starred in the Off-Broadway plays Three Ways Home, Cryin' Shame, for Freefall at the Victory Garden Theatre in Chicago, and in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. A seasoned director, Warner was one of the regular directors on the comedy series Malcolm & Eddie and also directed several episodes of The Cosby Show, All That, Keenan & Kel, as well as a host of music videos. His short film, This Old Man, received critical acclaim on the theater festival circuit. Additional directing credits include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sesame Street, and the AIDS awareness video Timeout: The Truth About HIV, AIDS, and YOU. The video starred Magic Johnson and Arsenio Hall, earned Warner the NAACP Key of Life Image Award. For four seasons, Warner was heard as the voice of the "Producer" on PBS's The Magic School Bus. Currently he can be heard on the audio book version of The Marvelous Effect published by Berkley Trade as well as Simon & Schuster's Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad is a native of Houston, Texas, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater from Howard University. Known to television audiences for her role as "Claire Huxtable" on The Cosby Show and as "Ruth Lucas" on the CBS sitcom, Cosby, she received the NAACP Image Award for "Best Actress in a Comedy Series" for both of these roles. She has also been nominated for two Emmy Awards and has received two People's Choice Awards. Ms. Rashad made her directorial debut at the helm of The Seattle Repertory Theatre's production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Broadway credits include August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun, (2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play/Drama Desk Award), Blue, Jelly's Last Jam, Into the Woods, Dreamgirls, The Wiz, and Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death. She has starred in a number of feature films and television roles. She was nominated for an Emmy Award and won an NAACP Image Award for her television performance in A Raisin in the Sun. As an active participant in charitable and nonprofit organizations, Ms. Rashad supports the work of the PRASAD Project, an international charitable organization and is a member of the Broadway Inspirational Voices. Ms. Rashad has received honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University, Howard University, Providence College in Rhode Island, Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Clark University, and Barber-Scotia College, and is a recipient of the Harvard University Foundation Award. Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, in 1931. She is the first and only Hispanic female to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. The two Emmys were for a 1977 variety appearance on The Muppet Show and a dramatic guest appearance on The Rockford Files in 1978. The Tony was for her 1973 performance on Broadway as Googie Gomez in The Ritz. The Grammy was for her 1972 performance on The Electric Company Album for children, which was based on the long-running television show of the same name. The Academy Award was for her performance as Anita in the 1962 motion picture, West Side Story. When she was five years old, she and her mother moved to New York. At age 13, she had her Broadway debut in Skydrift. At age 17, a talent scout arranged a meeting with Louis B. Mayer and she was signed to a contract with MGM. From that point on, her career advanced steadily. She continues to keep busy, performing concerts across the country and as a guest artist with symphony orchestras. Ms. Moreno has served on The National Endowment for the Arts and as a Commissioner on The President's White House Fellowships. She has also served a member of The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. At a White House ceremony in June 2004, Ms. Moreno was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by the President. The medal is the highest honor bestowed upon a civilian. Ms. Moreno is married to Leonard Gordon, a retired physician. Their daughter, Femanda, is an artist and a mother. Sinbad
Sinbad (David Adkin) was born in 1956 in Bent Harbor, Michigan. David began his comedic career in the 1980s, which is when he adopted the stage name of Sinbad, which to him symbolizes strength, optimism, and adventure. Sinbad began working with the "Poverty Tour" in 1983 where he traveled by Greyhound bus to comedy clubs across the nation. He had no money so he had to work off his meals and hotel rooms as well. Sinbad made one of his first television appearances on the show Star Search hosted by Ed McMahon. Although Sinbad made it to the finals for stand-up comedy, he lost in the final round. Sinbad then began hosting It's Showtime at the Apollo from 1989 to 1991. Throughout the early 1990s, Sinbad's comedic and acting career began to take off. He then starred on the popular sitcom A Different World. Sinbad made his film debut in the comedy Necessary Roughness in 1991, costarring Robert Loggia, Rob Schneider, and Kathy Ireland. He has also starred in Houseguest in 1995 alongside Phil Hartman. As his celebrity persona grew, Sinbad began starring in his own show, The Sinbad Show, which aired on Fox before it was cancelled. Most recently, Sinbad has returned to hosting It's Showtime at the Apollo. Steven Wright
Steven Wright was raised in Burlington, Massachusetts. A graduate of Emerson College, he held a bevy of odd jobs before attending an "open mic" audition which brought him a regular gig at Ding Ho's Comedy Club and Chinese Restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His big break, an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson came in August 1982. The host enjoyed the performance so much that he extended a rare invitation to Mr. Wright to return again within a week. These back-to-back appearances put his fledgling career into high gear and the comedian was soon performing his offbeat routines on Saturday Night Live, and Late Night with David Letterman. Mr. Wright expanded his comedy career to include comedy albums and film. His 1986 debut album, I Have A Pony, earned a Grammy nomination. Warner Bros. Records rereleased I Have A Pony, packaged with Steven's first HBO special, A Steven Wright Special on DVD this year. He won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Short Film for his work entitled, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, which he both starred and co-wrote. Wright has also been seen in numerous feature films, including: Desperately Seeking Susan, Mike Meyers' So I Married An Axe Murderer, Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, and Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts. Steven has recently been seen in the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes and the film The Aristocrats. Steven was honored as the first inductee into The Boston Comedy Hall of Fame on December 15, 2008. Steven is a regular guest with David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson. He continues touring the U.S., Canada, and overseas. Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson is a prolific songwriter and entertainer, and one of the country's most notorious "outlaws." Nelson began writing songs for others and his songs were quickly embraced. His Hello Walls became a nine-week number one for Faron Young and Patsy Cline's version of Crazy became an instant classic. Disillusioned with Nashville and with his label's insistence on lush, string-laden arrangements, he moved back to Texas in 1972. Emboldened by the rock and folk music becoming popular in Austin, Nelson and his music began to change. While in Austin, Nelson found the underground music scene and he found an audience for his brand of country-blues-jazz-folk. He signed with Atlantic and released Shotgun Willie. He gained critical success, but it didn't sell well. His 1974 follow-up Phases & Stages helped him build a loyal following, and he signed a new record deal. A fixture on the singles charts over the next several years, Nelson's star rose even further with the 1978 releases Waylon & Willie and Stardust. Nelson's stardom soon translated to another medium with roles in feature films including Honeysuckle Rose, Stagecoach, and many more. His single On The Road Again reached the top of the charts in 1981, Always On My Mind was a crossover smash in 1982, and a duet with Julio Iglesias, To All The Girls I've Loved Before, was a hit in 1984. He's recorded dozens of albums, charted hundreds of songs, and seems to be just about everywhere. His Farm Aid concerts generate much-needed funding for American farmers, and his yearly Picnic concerts draw audiences from all over the country to Austin. Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1961. He received his first trumpet at the age of six, a gift from the legendary Al Hirt. At the age of 17, he was accepted into The Juilliard School in New York City and soon thereafter was discovered by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Wynton made his recording debut in 1982 and has since recorded more than 60 jazz and classical recordings, garnering him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy's in the same year. Wynton's sixth release with Blue Note Records in 2009 titled He and She was inspired by his original poem of the same title. Mr. Marsalis' rich body of compositions includes varied combinations of jazz, classical, choral, dance, gospel, and blues. In 1997 he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music for his oratorio, Blood on the Fields. An internationally respected teacher and spokesman for music education, Wynton conducts workshops all over the world. He created and hosts the popular Jazz for Young People concerts, Marsalis on Music DVD series, and was honored with a Peabody Award for the radio series Making the Music. He has also written five books including his most recent release Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life. Mr. Marsalis is the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and helped lead the effort to construct its current home – Frederick P. Rose Hall – the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz. |
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Funding is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS. Bill Cosby: The Mark Twain Prize is a co-production of WETA Washington, D.C.; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Mark Krantz Productions; and Comedia. Executive producers are Bob Kaminsky, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Krantz and Cappy McGarr. WETA executive producers are Dalton Delan and David S. Thompson.
Copyright © 2009 WETA. All rights reserved. : Published October 2009 |
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