Godfrey Cambridge
About
Biography
Filmography
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Biography
Heavyset (sometimes overweight), black player who began his career off-Broadway in "Take a Giant Step" (1956) and won acclaim, and an OBIE Award, for his performance in the all-star production of Jean Genet's "The Blacks" (1961) in which he played a black man who is transformed into an aged white woman. Adept at both ironic comedy and serious drama, Cambridge often starred in films with racial themes including the satirical "Watermelon Man" (1970) as a white bigot who wakes up to find himself suddenly turned into a black man. Cambridge, who was also memorable in "The President's Analyst" (1967), and "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970), died of a heart attack on the set of a TV movie in which he was playing Idi Amin Dada.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1946
Returned to NYC from Sydney, Nova Scotia
1956
Off-Broadway stage debut as bartender in "Take a Giant Step"
1956
TV debut on "Naked City" and "You'll Never Get Rich" episodes
1959
Screen acting debut in "The Last Angry Man"
1961
Breakthrough stage performance in Genet's "The Blacks"
1964
Produced first record album, "Ready or Not, Here's Godfrey Cambridge"
1976
Died of heart attack on Warner Bros. set of "Victory at Entebbe" in which he was starring as Idi Amin
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