dancer; choreographer; movie director; actor; movie producer; playwright
Personal Information
Born on January 16, 1950, in Houston, TX; daughter of Vivian Ayers Allen (a poet) and Arthur Allen (a dentist); married Winfred Wilford, 1975 (divorced 1983); married Norman Nixon, 1984; children: Vivian Nichole, Norman, Jr
Education: Howard University, BA, 1971.
Career
Theatrical performer, 1972-; actress, 1977-; director, 1982-; producer, 1982-; choreographer, 1982-; composer, 1997-; playwright, 1998-; author, 1999-; Debbie Allen Dance Academy, founder/dance director, 2001-.
Life's Work
The critics agree--Debbie Allen is impossible to typecast. "I'm an artist," she told the New York Times. That's probably the shortest definition for this dynamic and multifaceted performer, who is known as an actress, dancer, singer, choreographer, director, and producer. She has been blessed not only with boundless talent, but with a dedication and zeal that she brings to every project. She believes firmly in the value of hard work, and scoffs at the idea of fate. Good things happen, she knows, if you are ready when opportunity knocks.
Creativity Fostered By Mother
Allen was born on January 16, 1950, the third child of Vivian Ayers, a poet, and Arthur Allen, a dentist. Her parents met while both were studying at Howard University. Arthur Allen began his dental practice in New York City, and eventually moved to Houston, where Debbie was born. "There were many lean years," Allen reminisced in the Washington Post, "because Daddy's practice was just starting. He would fix people's teeth free if they had no money." Her mother concentrated on her writing projects, but earned little. "There were times when we didn't have things," Allen continued. "But we didn't worry about that. Because Momma made us know that we had each other and that the stars and universe belonged to us." Allen is grateful to her mother, she told the Chicago Tribune, for "raising me with the concept of being a human being in the universe. The universe, that's something much bigger than any street, any city, any state.... It means you are not limited. You are boundless."
Allen's parents divorced in 1957, split apart, she believed, by conflict over her mother's literary career. "There was too much pressure on their relationship," she told the Washington Post. Her mother's poetry was eventually nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; she also wrote plays and published a magazine.
Allen was three when she began dancing, and knew by the time she was four that she wanted to perform. "I was always imitating the ladies in the circus," she told the Chicago Tribune. "I used to climb trees in the back of my house to get on the roof. I'd put on my bathing suit and put a towel around my neck and I would dance around." When she was five, she began taking private dance lessons; at eight, inspired by an Alvin Ailey dance troupe performance, she was determined to pursue a theatrical career.
The Allen children were groomed for an artistic life from early on (older sister Phylicia Rashad starred as Claire Huxtable on television's the Cosby Show, and brother "Tex" Allen is a jazz musician). Their mother gave them writing assignments to encourage their creativity, and made each of them wash and iron their own clothes to foster independence. Each was assured, Debbie told the Washington Post, "I am the most special one." Their daily recited motto was: "Be true. Be beautiful. Be free."
In 1960 Vivian Ayers took her daughters to live with her in Mexico. "She didn't know anybody in Mexico," Debbie recalled in the Washington Post. "She didn't speak Spanish. She was looking for another level of experience. She said, 'It is time to go.' I respect that so much."
Forced To Overcome Segregation In Dance
After about two years in Mexico, Allen and her family returned to Texas. When Allen was 12 she tried out for the Houston Ballet School, but it refused to accept black students. A year later a Russian dancer who saw her perform secretly enrolled her in the school, revealing the plot three months later. "By the time she showed me to them," Allen told the Washington Post, "I was dancing so great they couldn't deny it."
Segregation circumscribed her life in other ways during those years, limitations she has not forgotten. "I grew up with water fountains at Woolworth's that said 'black' and 'white,'" she said in the Chicago Tribune. "I grew up not being able to go to the movie theater downtown; I grew up not being able to go to the amusement park, except one day a year; I grew up in a school system that was totally segregated." But her mother prevented the Allen children from being stifled by the bigotry that surrounded them. "Momma was raising us in the midst of segregation and racism to be independent and free," Allen declared in the Washington Post. "We saw ourselves as citizens of the world. Not a block. This is probably why we succeed and keep doing different things."
In high school Allen took ten dance classes a week and still managed to stay on the honor roll--probably one of the reasons she was nicknamed "Miss Versatile" by her fellow students. At 16 she auditioned as a classical ballet student for the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her hopes soared when she was chosen to demonstrate technique for other prospective students; however, the judges rejected her application, saying that her body was "unsuited" for ballet--a criticism often used to impede black dancers. She was advised to pursue modern dance instead.
Allen was devastated. "When I called my dad," she said in the Washington Post, "he thought I was joking." On her return, her mother greeted her with the words, "'I can't believe you failed.' When she said that," Allen recalled, "it was like a knife was turning and twisting in my heart." Cruel as the remark may seem, today Allen finds it inspiring. "Even though we knew ultimately that it was a racial thing," she continued, "she didn't let me blame anyone but myself. That experience taught me to overcome what may seem to be limitations."
Launched Her Career on Broadway
After graduation Allen joined her sister, Phylicia, at Howard University. The stinging memory of the incident in North Carolina, however, had taken all desire to dance from her. "I was just too devastated," she told the Washington Post. "Then one night I was at a party. A man came over and said, 'Your sister tells me you can really dance.' 'Yeah.' I said. 'Well, why don't you come dance with me?' he asked. 'I can dance too.'" The man, who would become her mentor, was Mike Malone, well known in Washington, D.C. When he saw her perform, he was stunned: "My God," he exclaimed, "you can dance."
Returning to dance was practically a rebirth for Allen. She graduated cum laude from Howard in 1971 with a degree in drama. Her ambitions renewed, she set off for Broadway and then vigorously pursued the career she had dreamed of since childhood. She was so determined to succeed in show business, she refused the "day jobs" that usually pay aspiring actresses' rent. Recalling those early months, she told the Washington Post, "I pounded pavements, went to every audition. That was my spirit. Work at whatever you do, whether you get paid or not. I got that from my mother." Her tenacity paid off in 1972 with a chorus line stint in Purlie, followed a year later by the role of Beneatha in the musical Raisin. She stayed with the show for two years before she branched out into television, working in commercials and series.
In 1975 Allen married Winfred "Win" Wilford, an actor and fellow cast member. A Southerner like herself, he hailed from Baton Rouge, her father's hometown. "When he asked me to marry him," she remembered in the Washington Post, "I asked him, 'Why?' He said, 'So I can take care of you.' That sounded nice. And we got married." But like her parents' marriage, this relationship was also highly pressured.
In 1977 she landed the starring role in an NBC series called 3 Girls 3; the show earned good reviews but was unable to garner the ratings that would have kept it afloat. The network pulled the plug. "Television chews you up," she remarked in the Chicago Tribune, recalling her last day on the 3 Girls 3 set. "I was dancing at the time--wearing a fantastic Bob Mackie outfit--and I had great directors and writers and choreographers around me. When we finished--I mean, I did this dance like I'd never done it--I stood there and watched them start to tear the set down! And I sat down and cried because I was not ready to let go of what I had just given."
The setback was temporary, however. During the same year, Allen portrayed Adelaide on Broadway in the musical Guys and Dolls, appeared in such television series as Good Times and The Love Boat, and landed a role in the TV movie Midnight Special. In 1979 she returned to Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin', and appeared in as well as choreographed the film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.
Fame and Charity Garnered Awards
Her reputation as an actress burgeoning, Debbie appeared in the 1980 Broadway revival of West Side Story, where her portrayal of Anita earned her a Tony Award nomination. In the same year, she won the part of dance teacher Lydia Grant in the movie Fame, a role with which she would become closely identified. The movie was one of the biggest hits of the early 1980s and it brought Allen a level of stardom she had not been able to find on the stage.
Hoping to capture the popularity of the film, Fame became a TV series in 1982, with Allen reprising her role and acting as the show's choreographer. The series ran for one season on network television, and an additional four in syndication, netting Allen three Emmy awards for choreography. During her stint with the show, she began to direct whole episodes as well as dance numbers.
Success, unfortunately, exacted a personal toll. Her marriage to Wilford collapsed under the strain of their careers; they separated in 1982 and divorced a year later. "Divorce was the most difficult decision of my life," she said in the Washington Post, "because he was such a nice man." An old friendship, however, soon turned into romance. Allen had met Norman Nixon, then an all-star guard on the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, while shooting The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. When she first went to see him play, she told the Washington Post, "I didn't know anything about basketball, but I could tell that he was a beautiful player." They were married in 1984, and have two children.
In 1986 Debbie Allen became a star in her own right when she headlined Bob Fosse's revival of the musical Sweet Charity. Fosse gave her the freedom to interpret the role for herself--a daunting task, since it had been created on stage by the legendary Gwen Verdon and played in the film version by Shirley MacLaine. Allen's performance was honored with a Tony Award.
Moved Into Directing and Producing
In 1988 Allen's stature as a director was confirmed when she was chosen to direct (and eventually produce) the troubled Cosby show spinoff, A Different World, which was floundering after its first season. "What I saw was some very engaging and compelling characters and here and there a good story," she told the New York Times. "But mostly it was so silly." Allen beefed up the scripts with meatier plots and more realistic characters, addressing serious social and political topics while maintaining the show's comedic edge. She not only saved the series, she boosted it to the top of the ratings. She would continue to produce and direct the show until it went off the air in 1993.
Her talents were further highlighted in 1989 when she directed and choreographed her first movie, the Disney TV musical Polly. The film, an adaptation of the novel Pollyanna, was reset in a black Alabama community of the 1950s. The story gently reflects the rising tide of the civil rights movement, a dose of reality on which Allen insisted. She (and her husband) even composed one of the show's songs, a gospel number called Stand Up, which is sung by a cast of 200. "I'm good with big groups of people," she told the Chicago Tribune.
In the 1990s and on into the 2000s, Allen continued to direct as well as produce for both the big and the small screen. Her television directing credits included Stompin' at the Savoy, a TV movie about four black women whose lives centered around Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in the years before World War II, comedies such as The Sinbad Show, The Jamie Foxx Show, Between Brothers, and Linc's, and shows centered around women's issues such as the television movie The Old Settler, and the ongoing series Cool Women, for the WE network.
Journeyed to Produce Amistad
Perhaps one of the most important projects that Allen worked on was the Steven Spielberg movie Amistad, a tale of slaves who took over a slaveship and attempted to return to Africa only to be caught and tried for mutiny. The story of the Amistad and its crew came to the attention of Allen in 1979 when she was visiting her father at Howard University and came across a book called Amistad I: Writings in Black History and Culture. As soon as she had read the book, Allen knew that it was an event that "the world needed to hear--and a feature film if ever there was one," as she told Essence
However, the road to getting Amistad made was not an easy one for Allen to travel. She bought the film rights to a novelized story of the events, Black Mutiny and began working up a treatment of it for the screen. Between 1984 and 1989, Allen shopped the story around to every movie studio and agent that she could find, but no one expressed any interest in the product. As she told Essence, "I was stunned and amazed to meet such an across-the-board negative reaction." By 1989 Allen became discouraged and decided to stop pushing the story of the Amistad to studios, focusing instead on her other directorial and acting projects.
In late 1990, word about Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List began floating around Hollywood, a movie that many people thought would never get made. From a commercial standpoint, it was perceived as a depressing film that would repel audiences. Spielberg, however, went ahead with the movie and not only was it a commercial success, but it garnered critical acclaim as well. This spurred Allen to take her script directly to Dreamworks, Spielberg's film company, and she found that they were not only open to the idea of making Amistad, they were actually very excited about it. But Allen wanted more than just Dreamworks on the project, she wanted Spielberg to direct. At first Spielberg was hesitant after the mixed public reaction to his movie The Color Purple, but after much prodding by Allen, Spielberg agreed. It was a very emotional moment for Allen, as she told Essence, "I knew we were going to make the movie, that I would produce it, and I knew that he had to direct it. ... I had moments that I would never forget."
Continued Acting While Pushing Boundaries
Even though Allen worked a good deal as a director and a producer in the 1990s and 2000s, she also continued to act on both the big and small screen. She appeared in a couple of television movies, before moving back to feature films with Blank Check, the dark comedy Mona Must Die, and Out of Sync. She returned to television in the late 1990s with the TV series "In the House" with LL Cool J and in the television movie Michael Jordan: An American Hero as Jordan's mother, Deloris. She also starred in the PBS television movie The Old Settler, with her sister, Phylicia Rashad. Allen told Jet that the experience was special because she and her sister "had acted together, but not like this. These women are dealing with some serious issues, the war, the depression, racial issues."
In 1998 Allen began to reap the rewards of a long fruitful career. She was honored by the Kennedy Center when she was asked to help revamp the children's drama program, starting with the play Brothers of the Knight with James Ingram. Later that year she was honored with a Career Achievement Award from the Acapulco Black Film Festival. In 2001 she was honored by the American Women in Radio and Television with a Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2002 she received the Strong, Smart and Bold Award from Girls Inc. of Greater Houston.
Always looking to push the boundaries of her abilities, Allen began to branch out into different venues. In October of 1999 she co-authored Brothers of the Knight, an adaptation of her stage play for the Kennedy Center. She followed this in September of 2000 with Dancing in the Wings, a fictional story about a dancer who is coming to terms with her body. In 2002 she debuted Debbie Allen's 5-Step Skin Care Collection, a line of skin care products specifically created for women of color. Allen told the PR Newswire that she created the products because "I've never been able to find a single line of products that can address all of my skin care needs."
Returned to Dancing and Fame
Even though she had many things going for her, Allen still found time to devote to her first loves, dance and theater. In 2001 she opened the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Culver City, California, and she used the academy to develop the show Pearl, for the Geffen Playhouse in association with the Kennedy Center in 2002. Pearl is an updated story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that revolves around singing and dance. Allen not only wrote the script and music for the musical, but she also choreographed, directed, and starred in it alongside her daughter, Vivian Nixon.
Most recently, Allen has returned to television with the reality television show Fame. The show has Allen going around the nation looking for the next great entertainer. The contestants must be able to sing, dance, and act to compete, and the competition between the twenty-four finalists is intense. Allen said that she was drawn to the Fame reality show because it pushed for people to be the best, not for one single moment or performance, but over a variety of performances over time. She told Jet "People can be really talented, but they might not make it beyond one step of that glorious moment of stardom, so to speak, if they don't have the work ethic that it takes to continue to study, to continue to develop and to stay sharp with what you do." She is hoping the show will revitalize America's love of dance and will inspire young dancers to try their hardest to achieve their goals.
Despite her many accomplishments, Debbie Allen is not one to rest on her laurels. "Like you, I am still a work in progress," she told graduates of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West, a speech that was quoted in the Washington Post. She urged them to learn from their mistakes, calling failure "the really bad 'F-word.' It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing.... And the next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life."
Awards
Selected: Drama Desk Award and Tony award nomination for best supporting actress in musical for West Side Story, 1980; two Emmy awards for choreography, and a Golden Globe Award for best actress for Fame, 1982-83; Tony Award for best actress in musical for Sweet Charity, 1986; two Emmy nominations for The Debbie Allen Show, 1988; Career Achievement Award, Acapulco Black Film Festival, 1998; Lifetime Achievement Award, American Women in Radio and Television, 2001; Strong, Smart and Bold Award, Girls Inc. of Greater Houston, 2002.
Works
Selected works
- Brothers of the Knight, Dial Books for Young Readers, 1999.
- Dancing In the Wings, Dial Books for Young Readers, 2000.
- The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, 1979.
- Fame, 1980.
- Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, 1986.
- Blank Check, 1994.
- Mona Must Die, 1994.
- Out-of-Sync, 1995.
- Everything's Jake, 2000.
- All About You, 2001.
- The Painting, 2002.
- Out-of-Sync, 1995.
- Amistad, 1997.
- The Painting, 2002.
- 3 Girls 3, NBC 1977.
- Ebony, Ivory and Jade, 1979.
- Fame, (TV series) NBC, 1982-87.
- The Debbie Allen Show, ABC, 1988.
- Stompin' at the Savoy, 1992.
- In the House, NBC, 1995-96.
- Michael Jordan: An American Hero, 1999.
- The Old Settler, PBS, 2001.
- Fame, (reality show) NBC, 2003.
- Fame, NBC, 1982-87.
- Family Ties, NBC, 1982.
- Different World, 1988-1993.
- Polly, ABC, 1989.
- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, NBC, 1990.
- Stompin' at the Savoy, 1992.
- The Sinbad Show, FOX, 1993.
- The Jamie Foxx Show, WB, 1996.
- Between Brothers, FOX, 1997.
- Linc's, Showtime, 1998.
- Cool Women, WE, 2000.
- The Old Settler, PBS, 2001.
- Fame, NBC, 1982-87.
- Different World, 1987-1993.
- Sunday in Paris, 1991.
- The Old Settler, PBS, 2001.
- Fame, NBC, 2003.
- Purlie, 1972.
- Raisin, 1973.
- Guys and Dolls, 1977.
- Ain't Misbehavin', 1979.
- West Side Story, 1980.
- Sweet Charity, 1986.
- Brothers of the Knight, 1998.
- Pearl, 2003.
Further Reading
Books
- Estell, Kenneth, editor, The African American Almanac, 6th ed., Gale, 1994, pp. 956-57.
- Walz, Barbra, and Jill Barber, Starring Mothers, Dolphin/Doubleday, 1987.
- Black Issues Book Review, March 2001, p. 82.
- Business Wire, April 29, 2002.
- Calendar, March 27, 1988, p. 51.
- Chicago Tribune, November 12, 1989; November 15, 1990; December 23, 1990, sec 11, p. 3.
- Essence, December 17, 1997, pp. 82-86.
- Jet, August 10, 1998, p. 63; February 26, 2001, p. 61; December 16, 2002, p. 52; July 7, 2003, pp. 60-63.
- Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1989, sec. VI, p 1.
- New York Times, October 4, 1990, p. C26; March 29, 1992, sec. 2, p. 35.
- Parade, November 17, 1991, p. 4.
- PR Newswire, April 11, 2001; June 6, 2002.
- U.S. News & World Report, July 20, 1998, p. 10.
- Variety, June 2, 2003, p. A14.
- Washington Post, February 4, 1996, p. G8.
- "Debbie Allen," Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com (September 30, 2003).
— Amy Loerch Strumolo and Ralph G. Zerbonia
