Zakes Makgona Mokae (5 August 1934 â€" 11 September 2009) was a South
African-American actor.Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa,
moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, and to the United States in 1969.
He turned to acting at the same time as playwright Athol Fugard was
emerging. The two worked together on Fugard's play, The Blood Knot,
from 1961, a two-hander set in South Africa about brothers with the
same mother but different fathers; Zach (played by Mokae) is dark
skinned and Morris (played by Fugard) is fair skinned. Later Mokae
worked with Fugard on the play "Master Harold"...and the Boys, for
which Mokae won the 1982 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play. The
play was filmed for television in 1985 with Mokae and Matthew
Broderick. In 1993 Mokae was nominated for a second Tony Award for
Featured Actor in a Play for The Song of Jacob Zulu by Tug
Yourgrau.His early film roles included Darling (1965) as a guest at a
wild party, and The Comedians (1967) starring Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor. His major films are split between anti-apartheid
films such as Cry Freedom (1987) and A Dry White Season (1989), and
cult horror films such as The Island (1980), Dust Devil (1993), The
Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Vampire In Brooklyn (1995), the
latter two were directed by horror icon Wes Craven. He also appeared
in character roles in many other films including Gross Anatomy (1989),
Dad (1989), A Rage in Harlem (1991), Outbreak (1995) and the Kevin
Costner film Waterworld (1995). On television, he has been a guest
actor in many series such as The West Wing, Starsky and Hutch, Danger
Man, The X-Files, Oz, Monk, A Different World and Knight Rider.In
1975, American writer-filmmaker Eon Chontay Cjohnathan gave birth to
Zakes Mokae's only child, Santlo (after Mokae's mother) Chontay Mokae.
African-American actor.Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa,
moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, and to the United States in 1969.
He turned to acting at the same time as playwright Athol Fugard was
emerging. The two worked together on Fugard's play, The Blood Knot,
from 1961, a two-hander set in South Africa about brothers with the
same mother but different fathers; Zach (played by Mokae) is dark
skinned and Morris (played by Fugard) is fair skinned. Later Mokae
worked with Fugard on the play "Master Harold"...and the Boys, for
which Mokae won the 1982 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play. The
play was filmed for television in 1985 with Mokae and Matthew
Broderick. In 1993 Mokae was nominated for a second Tony Award for
Featured Actor in a Play for The Song of Jacob Zulu by Tug
Yourgrau.His early film roles included Darling (1965) as a guest at a
wild party, and The Comedians (1967) starring Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor. His major films are split between anti-apartheid
films such as Cry Freedom (1987) and A Dry White Season (1989), and
cult horror films such as The Island (1980), Dust Devil (1993), The
Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Vampire In Brooklyn (1995), the
latter two were directed by horror icon Wes Craven. He also appeared
in character roles in many other films including Gross Anatomy (1989),
Dad (1989), A Rage in Harlem (1991), Outbreak (1995) and the Kevin
Costner film Waterworld (1995). On television, he has been a guest
actor in many series such as The West Wing, Starsky and Hutch, Danger
Man, The X-Files, Oz, Monk, A Different World and Knight Rider.In
1975, American writer-filmmaker Eon Chontay Cjohnathan gave birth to
Zakes Mokae's only child, Santlo (after Mokae's mother) Chontay Mokae.
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