Ben Vereen

Ben Vereen built his reputation as a singer, dancer, and actor whose stage work stood out for its intensity, with credits that stretch across television, film, and live theater. He entered the world in Miami in 1946 and traces most of his accomplishments to his mother, a Louisiana native employed as a maid while his father labored in a paint factory. She often described blues singers and jazz musicians who performed for plantation workers during their lunch breaks, and her own renditions of those blues while recalling earlier days planted Vereen’s lifelong interest in music. His debut came at age four with a solo inside the Baptist church where his father served as deacon. He later sang with a church quartet whose performances regularly moved women in the congregation to tears along the aisles, confirming for him a vocation as a vocalist.

After finishing at the High School of Performing Arts, he encountered no immediate openings in dance or theater and therefore entered the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Six months later he left that path to resume his theatrical ambitions. New York first saw him at eighteen in Prodigal Son. In 1969 he joined the Hair company and eventually portrayed Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, earning the Theatre World Award for the role. Pippin brought him a Tony Award. His film work includes Funny Lady and All That Jazz. On television he received an Emmy Award for the 1978 special Ben Vereen... His Roots. During the eighties he appeared on series such as Webster and the contests You Write the Songs and Your Momma Don't Dance. In Webster he played uncle to Emmanuel Lewis’s title character and often performed song-and-dance numbers. The death of his daughter in the late eighties left him emotionally exhausted and led him to consider suicide. After seeking help for those difficulties he returned to performing, appearing on Broadway in Jelly's Last Jam and on the USA series Silk Stalkings. He ultimately collected the American Guild of Variety Artists' George M. Cohen Award and the NAACP's Image Award, sustaining a career as performer, singer, and actor through numerous setbacks.