Calvin Lockhart (born Bert McClossy Cooper; October 18, 1934 â€" March
29, 2007) was a Bahamianâ€"American stage and film actor. Lockhart was
perhaps best known for his roles as; Reverend Deke O'Malley in the
1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem and Biggie Smalls in the 1975 Warner
Bros. film Let's Do It Again.Lockhart was born Bert McClossy Cooper,
the youngest of eight children in Nassau, Bahamas. Lockhart's father
was Eric Cooper (1912/1913â€"1976), a Bahamian tailor. Lockhart moved
to New York City, New York, when he was 18. He spent one year at the
Cooper Union School of Engineering, then left to pursue an acting
career. He drove a taxi and operated a carpentry business in the
borough of Queens while trying to establish a career as an actor.In
1960, Lockhart made his Broadway debut, playing a gang leader in The
Cool World (a dramatization of Warren Miller's novel of the same
name), which closed after just two performances. Lockhart then
traveled to Italy and formed his own theater company in which he both
acted and directed, before moving to West Germany and then England,
where he landed various roles on British television and small roles in
films such as 1968's A Dandy in Aspic and Salt and Pepper. \Lockhart's
first notable screen role was in Joanna, a 1968 film about an
interracial romance, set in London. Joanna was directed by Michael
Sarne, who subsequently cast Lockhart in the notorious Myra
Breckinridge. Lockhart's first lead role in a film was in Halls of
Anger (1970), playing a former basketball star who becomes
vice-principal of an inner-city high school to which 60 white students
are being moved. An article in The New York Times that year described
Lockhart as having "matinee-idol looks" with "chiseled-out-of-marble
features" and "skin the color of brown velvet". He also starred in
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970, based on the Chester Himes novel of the
same name) as the Reverend Deke O'Malley. In 1974, Lockhart became an
actor-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in
Stratford-upon-Avon, England. In the 1980s he was a guest star for
seven episodes in the prime-time soap opera Dynasty, playing Jonathan
Lake. He is familiar to horror film fans after his performance as the
millionaire big-game hunter in The Beast Must Die (1974).
29, 2007) was a Bahamianâ€"American stage and film actor. Lockhart was
perhaps best known for his roles as; Reverend Deke O'Malley in the
1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem and Biggie Smalls in the 1975 Warner
Bros. film Let's Do It Again.Lockhart was born Bert McClossy Cooper,
the youngest of eight children in Nassau, Bahamas. Lockhart's father
was Eric Cooper (1912/1913â€"1976), a Bahamian tailor. Lockhart moved
to New York City, New York, when he was 18. He spent one year at the
Cooper Union School of Engineering, then left to pursue an acting
career. He drove a taxi and operated a carpentry business in the
borough of Queens while trying to establish a career as an actor.In
1960, Lockhart made his Broadway debut, playing a gang leader in The
Cool World (a dramatization of Warren Miller's novel of the same
name), which closed after just two performances. Lockhart then
traveled to Italy and formed his own theater company in which he both
acted and directed, before moving to West Germany and then England,
where he landed various roles on British television and small roles in
films such as 1968's A Dandy in Aspic and Salt and Pepper. \Lockhart's
first notable screen role was in Joanna, a 1968 film about an
interracial romance, set in London. Joanna was directed by Michael
Sarne, who subsequently cast Lockhart in the notorious Myra
Breckinridge. Lockhart's first lead role in a film was in Halls of
Anger (1970), playing a former basketball star who becomes
vice-principal of an inner-city high school to which 60 white students
are being moved. An article in The New York Times that year described
Lockhart as having "matinee-idol looks" with "chiseled-out-of-marble
features" and "skin the color of brown velvet". He also starred in
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970, based on the Chester Himes novel of the
same name) as the Reverend Deke O'Malley. In 1974, Lockhart became an
actor-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in
Stratford-upon-Avon, England. In the 1980s he was a guest star for
seven episodes in the prime-time soap opera Dynasty, playing Jonathan
Lake. He is familiar to horror film fans after his performance as the
millionaire big-game hunter in The Beast Must Die (1974).
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