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actor
Personal Information
Born Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr., February 16, 1957, in Landstuhl, Germany; son of Levardis Robert (a photographer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps) and Erma (an educator, social worker, and administrator; maiden name, Christian) Burton.
Education: Attended the University of Southern, California.
Career
Actor. Debuted in Roots, ABC, 1977. Television series include: Reading Rainbow, PBS, 1983--; Star Trek: The Next Generation, syndicated, 1987-94; Captain Planet, TNT, 1991--. Film appearances include: Looking for Mr. Goodbar, 1977; The Hunter, 1980; The Supernaturals, 1987. Television movies include: Billy Portrait of a Street Kid, 1977; Battered, 1978; One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story, 1978; Dummy, 1979; Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, 1980; Grambling's White Tiger, 1981; The Acorn People, 1981; Emergency Room, 1983; The Jesse Owens Story, 1984; The Midnight Hour, 1985; A Special Friendship, 1987; Roots: The Gift, 1987; Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland, 1993.
Life's Work
Multi-talented actor LeVar Burton is probably best known for his role as Lieutenant Commander Geordi Laforge, the blind chief engineer, in Paramount Television's syndicated science fiction hit, Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is also host and coproducer of the long running, Emmy-winning Public Broadcasting System's educational series, Reading Rainbow, and many will remember him as "Kunta Kinte," a slave tortured into giving up his African identity in Roots, a 1976 television miniseries that broke viewing records and inspired a national discussion on the issue of race.
Burton had been plucked from drama school for his role in Roots, and that miniseries, with its incredible impact, made him a household name. However his identity as Kinte almost turned into an albatross around his neck; he feared never having an identity outside that of Kinte. For several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s it seemed that this might be the case. However Burton did eventually build a new public identity beginning with his debut on Reading Rainbow in 1983, and culminating with the massive success of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. was born in 1957, in Landstuhl, West Germany. His father, Levardis, Sr. was an army sergeant stationed in Germany as a photographer. When his parents separated, three-year-old LeVar returned to Sacramento, California with his mother, Erma Christian, and his two sisters Letitia and Valencia.
"My mom was an English teacher, and reading, for my family, was like breathing," Burton told a Daily Variety writer. Religion, too, was an important element in Burton's upbringing. His mother was a Catholic with strongly held beliefs. She sent her son to parochial school, where he felt the call to become a priest. "What attracted me to the priesthood was the opportunity to move people, to provide something essential," Burton told James Van Hise, author of Trek: The Next Generation. "I was drawn by the elements of history and magic. As a priest, you live beyond the boundaries of the normal existence. It's like joining an elite club. You see, it's not that different from acting, even the Mass is a play, combining these elements of mystery and spectacle."
Burton entered a Catholic seminary at the age of 13. Ever filled with curiosity, he began reading the philosophical works of Lao-Tzu, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. It was not long after these readings that he began questioning Catholic Church dogma. "I began to wonder how I fit into the grand scheme of things," he told Van Hise. "The more I thought about it the less sense it made that the dogma of Catholicism was the end-all, be-all of the universe."
By the age of 17, Burton was sure the priesthood was not for him. He left the seminary and won a scholarship to study drama at the University of California. A scant two years later he auditioned for Roots. At the time young black television stars were a rarity, so author Alex Haley and executives at ABC searched drama schools for a young black talent to play the lead in a miniseries based on Haley's book.
Being chosen for the role of Kunta Kinte was the chance of a lifetime. Looking back Burton acknowledged that Haley's involvement in his life changed him forever. "He handed me my dreams on a silver platter." Burton told a Los Angeles Daily News reporter. "Alex's involvement in my life changed my life forever and always."
Roots became the television phenomenon of 1977, and of the decade. It broke all viewing records and became a starting point for a national discussion of slavery and race. Burton's character, Kinte was the focus in one of the series' most dramatic moments. Trying to make Kinte respond to his slave name, "Toby," an overseer whipped Kinte mercilessly. For a time, Kinte refused to answer to any but his African name. "Finally, as he l[ay] there bleeding and defeated," reviewer, Nancy Mills of the New York Daily News recalled, "he whisper[ed] the detested [slave name] 'Toby.'" Viewers across the nation collectively breathed a sigh--of anguish.
Roots was an overwhelming success and Kunta Kinte became a household word, but Burton had to fight against being overidentified with the character he portrayed so well. "For the first five years of my career," he explained in the Daily News, "I made a supreme and conscious effort to distance myself from Kunta." Burton accomplished that by obtaining choice roles throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Burton garnered a supporting role in the hit Diane Keaton film, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and he starred in a number of television movies, including One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story, Grambling's White Tiger, The Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, Battered, Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid, and the Emmy-nominated, Dummy. Despite these consistent and often high profile television appearances, Burton sometimes seemed lost in the shuffle. The contrast between Roots, which affected the nation, and a run-of-the-mill television movie was just too great.
Burton began the process of shaping his identity outside of Roots in 1983, when he debuted as host of Reading Rainbow, a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) series meant to keep kids ages five through eight, reading through the summer. The show was immediately successful, and it became a long-running PBS staple, winning five Emmy awards in more than 11 years on the air.
Reading Rainbow' s format is simple. Burton begins by reading a story--making sure to show his viewers the book he is reading. Taking off from the text he has read, he then explores the day's subject in on-location segments. Sometimes celebrity guest readers are featured as well as "kid-on-the-street" segments. The show ends with kids themselves "reviewing" books.
Critics have lauded Burton's skill at hosting Reading Rainbow. The Christian Science Monitor described him as projecting "warmth, intelligence, and kindness" and deemed Burton an "excellent role model" who "never condescends to his audience." The reviewer continued: "Burton shows that books are relevant to real life, and he has something to say about patience, perseverance, understanding, prejudice, kids' cruelty and the appropriate response to it."
"What's special about Burton's hosting style," entertainment newspaper Daily Variety reported "is that, rather than serving as an authority on a topic, he participates in its discovery with his audience, evidencing such enthusiasm from what he is learning that it encourages his young viewers to do the same." "We make sure that the show does not condescend to the audience," Burton emphasized in a Daily Variety interview. "I talk to the kids as peers."
As a contributing producer since 1987, Burton has pushed the show towards addressing kids' problems. "We can share critically important knowledge and information by addressing the issues and concerns of what it's like to grow up in today's world," he was quoted as saying in Daily Variety. "We talk about what a family looks and feels like, about love and support. At one point in the show, I talk to the kids by addressing them in the camera dead on, and say, 'If anybody tries to tell you that you are not a family, don't let them.'"
Reading Rainbow has achieved a longevity and a popularity of few educational programs. In the mid-1990s, it was airing five days each week on nearly 330 PBS stations. More than 132,000 schools were using it, and a nationwide survey showed that 98 percent of children's librarians said that Reading Rainbow stimulated noticeable interest in books among beginning readers.
On January 10, 1994 Burton won the NAACP Image Award for his work on the show. He is proud of the way Reading Rainbow uses television to help create, "passionate, literate human beings," he told the Christian Science Monitor, and he is amazed by kids' ability to appreciate the written word. "I am continually hearing 'my favorite author is ...' and that just blows me away," he told the Los Angeles Times. "To be that sophisticated so as to recognize the voice of a writer and to align yourself with that voice as a child is outrageous !"
In 1987, Burton was cast as Lieutenant Commander, Geordi LeForge in the syndicated hit Star Trek: The Next Generation, possibly the key event in his career. As one of The Next Generation' s lead characters, Burton appeared in every episode and achieved a degree of recognition he hadn't seen since Roots. Burton had been a fan of the original Star Trek because it provided a rare positive representation of blacks. In The Next Generation, blacks played an even more important role than they had in the initial series. For example, as the blind chief engineer, Burton's character was responsible for the mechanical well being of the starship "Enterprise."
One of the highlights of his experience on the show was the opportunity he got to direct episodes. For his first six years on the show, he observed the way other directors operated--studying their techniques. Finally in 1993, he got his chance to direct his first episode. Called "Second Chances," it featured Jonathan Frakes's character, Commander Riker, coming face-to-face with his alter ego on the planet Nervala Four. As director, Burton took the opportunity to cast Dr. Mae Jemison, America's real-life first African-American female astronaut. When asked by a Chicago Tribune reporter how he decided to cast Jemison, Burton jokingly replied, "I knew Mac from just being around the planet."
Burton enjoyed making "Second Chances." "I loved directing," he concluded in the Chicago Tribune. "And I'm really proud.... I think it's an excellent episode." Critics agreed. Chicago Tribune' s Kevin Moore wrote that "Burton had a particular flair for directing."
While the demands for a principal actor in the highest rated syndicated show in television history can be tough, Burton managed to continue his acting and personal life off the Enterprise. He spent time with his son Eian, who was born out of a fleeting relationship in 1980. In 1992, he married Stephanie Cozart, a television makeup artist. Meanwhile he continued hosting Reading Rainbow by scheduling its shoots during weekends and on breaks from The Next Generation. "It's insane," he told Daily Variety, "but we just make it happen."
In 1988, Burton, who was finally secure in his acting identity outside his role of Kunta Kinte, agreed to reprise that role in a Christmas special entitled, Roots: The Gift. Set in 1770, Kinte and the character, Fiddler--played by Louis Gossett, Jr.--help a group of abused slaves to freedom. "It's really a great opportunity to come back and play a character 12 years later." Burton informed the Daily News. "Kunta Kinte and Fiddler are really folk heroes and the closest thing we have to black folk heroes in American literature."
Burton was cast as Kwame, the African environmental hero battling ecovillains on Turner Network Television's environmental kids cartoon, Captain Planet, in 1991. The animated feature, like Reading Rainbow, has been rated as among the best kids' programs on television. Along with Kwame, Burton provides the voice for Captain Planet, an even more potent superhero who forms when the lesser characters temporarily surrender, and thus synthesize, their power.
At the end of the 1994 season, Paramount canceled Star Trek: The Next Generation in order to bring the characters from the series to the big screen the following fall. Reaction to the show's cancellation was mixed among the Enterprise's crew. Some were angry, but Burton, for his part, felt the time was right, "This has been a very fulfilling seven-year cycle in my life," he told the Vancouver Sun "but I feel in my very being that it's time to move on."
Along with his participation in films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Burton has plans to produce, write, and direct his own projects. He has a production company called Eagle Nation Films. With his partner, Julia Roberson, he intends to bring several projects to the screen including Malidoma, the true story of a West African shaman who is a bridge between conflicting worlds. Burton wrote the screenplay for Malidoma and intends to star in, as well as direct, this project.
Awards
Emmy nominee, best actor, 1977, for Roots; NAACP Image Award for Reading Rainbow, 1994.
Further Reading
Books
- Bogle, Donald, Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia, Fireside, 1988, p. 327.
- Van Hise, James, Trek: The Next Generation, Pioneer Books, 1991, pp. 30-1.
- Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1993, p. 40.
- The Christian Science Monitor, April 25, 1994, p. 16.
- Daily News (New York), June 19, 1988.
- Daily Variety, April 20, 1993.
- Entertainment Weekly, May 6, 1994.
- Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1993, p. 78.
- Parade, May 30, 1993, p. 2.
- United Press International, January 19, 1993.
- Vancouver Sun, May 9, 1994, p. C1.
- Washington Post, July 25, 1993, p. Y6.
— Jordan Wankoff
