Theodore Ross Roberts (June , â€" September , ), known as Ted Ross,
was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the
Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The
Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original Broadway
production and went on to recreate the role in the film version which
also starred Diana Ross (no relation), Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor,
Nipsey Russell and Lena Horne. Ross went on to appear in many films
from including the role of Bitterman in the classic Arthur and on the
television sitcoms Benson, The Jeffersons, What’s Happening Now, The
Cosby Show and its spin-off A Different World. His final role was in
the movie The Fisher King .Ross was born in Zanesville, Ohio, but his
mother, Elizabeth Russell, a nightclub singer in the s and s, moved
the family to Dayton when young Ross was seven. He loved the clubs on
West Fifth Streetâ€"Dayton’s answer to Harlem in the first half of
the th century. While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age,
would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theater's
Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington.His
nightclub exploits as a teenager were not very popular at home. He
dropped out of Roosevelt High in and enlisted in the United States
Air Force. Two years later at age eighteen, Ross entered an amateur
night contest at the Top Hat bar on Germantown Street. Home on
furlough, he sang a cover of Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow", won $
that night and found his calling. After leaving the military, Ross
worked his way from Great Falls, Montana, to a strip bar in Los
Angeles as a singer and MC. There he landed his first stage role in
Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Bigtime Buck White".The musical began as a workshop
in Watts and moved to New York City in . He starred in The Wiz and
other Broadway productions, such as Purlie, Ain't Misbehavin, and
Raisin in the Sun. His first film was The Bingo Long Traveling
All-Stars & Motor Kings, a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones
and Richard Pryor. Films that followed included Ragtime, Amityville
II, Police Academy, Stealing Home, and The Fisher King. One of the
roles he is most fondly remembered for is that of Bitterman, Arthur
Bach's long suffering chauffeur in the Dudley Moore hit, Arthur.
was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the
Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The
Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original Broadway
production and went on to recreate the role in the film version which
also starred Diana Ross (no relation), Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor,
Nipsey Russell and Lena Horne. Ross went on to appear in many films
from including the role of Bitterman in the classic Arthur and on the
television sitcoms Benson, The Jeffersons, What’s Happening Now, The
Cosby Show and its spin-off A Different World. His final role was in
the movie The Fisher King .Ross was born in Zanesville, Ohio, but his
mother, Elizabeth Russell, a nightclub singer in the s and s, moved
the family to Dayton when young Ross was seven. He loved the clubs on
West Fifth Streetâ€"Dayton’s answer to Harlem in the first half of
the th century. While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age,
would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theater's
Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington.His
nightclub exploits as a teenager were not very popular at home. He
dropped out of Roosevelt High in and enlisted in the United States
Air Force. Two years later at age eighteen, Ross entered an amateur
night contest at the Top Hat bar on Germantown Street. Home on
furlough, he sang a cover of Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow", won $
that night and found his calling. After leaving the military, Ross
worked his way from Great Falls, Montana, to a strip bar in Los
Angeles as a singer and MC. There he landed his first stage role in
Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Bigtime Buck White".The musical began as a workshop
in Watts and moved to New York City in . He starred in The Wiz and
other Broadway productions, such as Purlie, Ain't Misbehavin, and
Raisin in the Sun. His first film was The Bingo Long Traveling
All-Stars & Motor Kings, a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones
and Richard Pryor. Films that followed included Ragtime, Amityville
II, Police Academy, Stealing Home, and The Fisher King. One of the
roles he is most fondly remembered for is that of Bitterman, Arthur
Bach's long suffering chauffeur in the Dudley Moore hit, Arthur.
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