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Zakes Mokae

 
Actor: Zakes Mokae
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Aug 05, 1934 in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Died: Sep 11, 2009
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Horror
  • Career Highlights: A Rage in Harlem, A Dry White Season, Dust Devil
  • First Major Screen Credit: A World of Strangers (1962)

Biography

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Zakes Mokae was for nearly twenty years one of the top stage actors in South Africa. Despite the many racial barriers inflicting his part of the world, Mokae, who is black, was applauded with equal fervor by audiences of all races. His first film role was a Haitian in 1967's The Comedians. Though retaining his South African citizenship, Mokae made most of his screen appearances in international productions. He was also a frequent visitor to U.S. television, usually cast as a doctor or scientist; conversely, in 1978 he played the convict friend of imprisoned baseball whiz Levar Burton in the made-for-TV biopic One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story and in 1991 he was seen as a gunslinger in Parker Kane. After essaying the politically volatile role of Father Kani in Cry Freedom (1987), Zakes Mokae found it necessary to move to America permanently. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Zakes Mokae

Mokae with Donald Sutherland in the film A Dry White Season, 1988
Born Zakes Makgona Mokae
5 August 1934(1934-08-05)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 11 September 2009 (aged 75)
Las Vegas, Nevada

Zakes Makgona Mokae[1] (5 August 1934 – 11 September 2009) was a South African-born American actor.

Life and career

Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moved to Great Britain in 1961, and to the United States in 1969.[2] He turned to acting at the same time as playwright Athol Fugard was emerging. The two worked together on Fugard's first international success, 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 another major international success 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 major films are split between anti-apartheid films such as A Dry White Season, Cry Freedom and A World of Strangers, and cult horror films such as Dust Devil, The Serpent and the Rainbow and Vampire In Brooklyn, two movies directed by Wes Craven. He also appears in character roles in many films. 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 and Knight Rider.

In later years, Mokae worked as a theatre director for American companies including the Nevada Shakespeare Company. Mokae died from complications of a stroke on 11 September 2009 in Las Vegas.[3][1] Mokae had been ill for some time.

References

  1. ^ a b Bruce Weber, "Zakes Mokae, Tony-Winning Actor, Is Dead at 75", The New York Times, 15 September 2009
  2. ^ "Zakes Mokae Biography". filmreference. 2008. http://www.filmreference.com/film/8/Zakes-Mokae.html. Retrieved 2008-05-19. 
  3. ^ http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3015&art_id=nw20090913190720791C582665

External links

v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Edward Herrmann (1976) · Jonathan Pryce (1977) · Lester Rawlins (1978) · Michael Gough (1979) · David Rounds (1980) · Brian Backer (1981) · Zakes Mokae (1982) · Matthew Broderick (1983) · Joe Mantegna (1984) · Barry Miller (1985) · John Mahoney (1986) · John Randolph (1987) · B. D. Wong (1988) · Boyd Gaines (1989) · Charles Durning (1990) · Kevin Spacey (1991) · Laurence Fishburne (1992) · Stephen Spinella (1993) · Jeffrey Wright (1994) · John Glover (1995) · Ruben Santiago-Hudson (1996) · Owen Teale (1997) · Tom Murphy (1998) · Frank Wood (1999) · Roy Dotrice (2000)

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