Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks; April 18, 1937) is an American
actor, producer, and activist. He is most recognizable to the public
for his more than 100 roles in films, television, and stage. Most
famously, Hooks, along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone,
founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is
credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of
all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over
the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American
theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two
significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company,
and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.The youngest of five children,
Hooks was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. to Mae Bertha (née
Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks who had moved from Rocky Mount,
North Carolina with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh,
Charles Edward "Charlie", and James Walter "Jimmy". Named Bobby Dean
Hooks at birth, Robert was their first child born up north and the
first to be born in a hospital. His father, Edward, died in a work
accident on the railroad in 1939.Hooks attended Stevens Elementary
School. In 1945, at the insistence of his sister Bernice who was doing
community arts outreach for youngsters at Francis Junior High School,
he performed the lead in his first play, The Pirates of Penzance, at
the age of nine. From the ages of 6 to 12, Bobby Dean journeyed with
his siblings to Lucama, North Carolina to work the tobacco fields for
his uncle's sharecropping farm as a way to help earn money for the
coming school year in D.C.In 1954, just as Brown vs. Board of
Education was being implemented in the north, he moved to Philadelphia
to be with his mother, her second husband, and his half-sister, Safia
Abdullah (née Sharon Dickerson). Hooks experienced his first
integrated school experience at West Philadelphia High School. Hooks
soon joined the drama club and began acting in plays by William
Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He was graduated in 1956, passing on a
scholarship to Temple University in order to pursue a career as a
stage actor at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongside
Charles Dierkop and Bruce Dern, with whom he second-acted plays doing
their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia) while working at Browning
King, a men's tailor shop at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets.
actor, producer, and activist. He is most recognizable to the public
for his more than 100 roles in films, television, and stage. Most
famously, Hooks, along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone,
founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is
credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of
all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over
the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American
theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two
significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company,
and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.The youngest of five children,
Hooks was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. to Mae Bertha (née
Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks who had moved from Rocky Mount,
North Carolina with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh,
Charles Edward "Charlie", and James Walter "Jimmy". Named Bobby Dean
Hooks at birth, Robert was their first child born up north and the
first to be born in a hospital. His father, Edward, died in a work
accident on the railroad in 1939.Hooks attended Stevens Elementary
School. In 1945, at the insistence of his sister Bernice who was doing
community arts outreach for youngsters at Francis Junior High School,
he performed the lead in his first play, The Pirates of Penzance, at
the age of nine. From the ages of 6 to 12, Bobby Dean journeyed with
his siblings to Lucama, North Carolina to work the tobacco fields for
his uncle's sharecropping farm as a way to help earn money for the
coming school year in D.C.In 1954, just as Brown vs. Board of
Education was being implemented in the north, he moved to Philadelphia
to be with his mother, her second husband, and his half-sister, Safia
Abdullah (née Sharon Dickerson). Hooks experienced his first
integrated school experience at West Philadelphia High School. Hooks
soon joined the drama club and began acting in plays by William
Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He was graduated in 1956, passing on a
scholarship to Temple University in order to pursue a career as a
stage actor at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongside
Charles Dierkop and Bruce Dern, with whom he second-acted plays doing
their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia) while working at Browning
King, a men's tailor shop at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets.
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