During his career he worked with Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Alfre Woodard, Muhammad Ali, and Oscar Brown Jr.[1][2][3], Weldon's mother was Beatrice Jennings; his father was Roosevelt Weldon. He was soon appearing in that company’s productions, and by 1977 he was playing the title character, a bootlegger, in its revival of “The Great MacDaddy,” a musical survey of a century of African-American history that the company had first staged in 1974. From left, Cecilia Antoinette, Jay Ward, Mr. Weldon and Chauncey DeLeon Gilbert in the Negro Ensemble Company’s 50th-anniversary production of Douglas Turner Ward’s “Day of Absence” in 2016. Mr. Welson’s marriages to Barbara Sotello and Debbie Morgan ended in divorce. Charles worked in the cotton fields near Bakersfield into his teens. He became artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company in 2005. For the Denver Theater Center, he appeared in twelve productions. The Negro Ensemble Company has sometimes struggled since the glory days of “The River Niger” and “A Soldier’s Play,” its 1981 hit. He was married to Debbi Morgan and Barbara. [2], As the lead singer of The Paradons, he co-wrote the hit record "Diamonds and Pearls" in 1960. All rights reserved. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1970 and later became its artistic director in 2005. “I used to borrow her car sometimes,” he told the website StageBuddy in 2013, “and I’d have to pick her up, and she would be in rehearsals for all these plays, and I use to sit there and wait for her, but I never thought about being an actor — just waiting to give her car back.”. The Hollywood Reporter is part of MRC Media and Info, a division of MRC. The theater company said the cause was lung cancer. The group, unable to recapture that lightning in a bottle, disbanded. Yet one thing led to another. He was the co-founder of the Alumni of this company and directed many of their productions. Weldon acted in many more, among them The Great McDaddy and The Brownsville Raid. By the time he left Blues for Sale, his sister, the actress Ann Weldon, was working with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Mr. Weldon’s work in the show drew a favorable mention from Clive Barnes in The New York Times. He joined with several other local teenagers to form the Paradons, a doo-wop group, and in 1960 a song they recorded, “Diamonds and Pearls,” became a modest hit. Terms of Use | Charles Weldon, an actor and director who led the New York theater troupe the Negro Ensemble Company for the past 13 years, died on Dec. 7 in … “They’ll see all the pictures and see all the people that came through this place at one time,” he said, “and I’ll say: ‘Oh. Charles Weldon was born on June 1, 1940 in Wetumka, Oklahoma, USA. The River Niger was written by Joseph A. Walker (playwright) and won a Tony Award for best play.[7]. The group appeared on the Dick Clark's American Bandstand television show and also toured with James Brown and Fats Domino. “I call myself the accidental actor,” Mr. Weldon said that year in an interview for the Primary Stages Off Broadway Oral History Project. He also appeared in the original San Francisco production of Hair. “Charles Weldon was very funny as a kind of black pantherine Hell’s Angel,” Mr. Barnes wrote. FACEBOOK He was the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company for thirteen years. He went there. © 2020 The Hollywood Reporter After a brief career as a singer, Mr. Weldon turned to acting in the late 1960s and found quick success, landing on Broadway in 1969 in “Buck White,” a musical that starred Muhammad Ali as a black militant leader. He then entered the theater world and began auditioning for regional productions. He was 78. Weldon’s underplaying of Hedley, if ungainly at times, is a welcome relief from the usual barnstorming associated with such characters,” Ben Brantley wrote in his review in The Times. Charles Weldon, the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, has died. Trilby Beresford Weldon had three children with his first wife Barbara Sotello, got remarried to second wife Debbi Morgan, and was single at the time of his death. Charles Weldon, the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, has died. That show closed after seven performances, but it started Mr. Weldon on a career in New York that included roles in a string of Negro Ensemble Company productions. During his career, he directed numerous company productions, … Charles Weldon, a prolific actor and director who was artistic director of The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) since 2005, died December 7 at age 78. He appeared in episodes of “Police Story,” “Kojak” and other series, and continued to play TV roles occasionally for the rest of his career. He was also in “Stir Crazy,” the 1980 Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder movie, and, he said later, sometimes traveled in Mr. Pryor’s hard-living circles — “a crazy time,” as he put it, one that affected his work and his personal life. His last stage role was in 2016, in a 50th-anniversary production of “Day of Absence,” a play by Douglas Turner Ward, a founder of the Negro Ensemble Company, which was created in 1967 to promote works by black theater artists. When the show had its premiere in 2010, he was also a member of the ensemble. That experience helped him refocus — “I didn’t go off and drive a truck because I wanted to be saved, but it saved me,” he told The Denver Post in 2010 — and he resumed acting and directing, continuing to work until his death. Mr. Weldon was the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company for the past 13 years. Oscar Brown Jr. was doing music for the play and would adapt it into the Broadway version. It was Mr. Weldon’s last stage role. | Cookie Settings. Prominent actors who have come through the New York-based company's ranks include Phylicia Rashad, S. Epatha Merkerson, Laurence Fishburne, Louis Gossett Jr., Adolph Caesar, Esther Rolle and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Weldon appeared in the original San Francisco production of Hair and directed and acted in many regional theaters. That’s why I’m doing it.’ ”, Charles Weldon, Who Led the Negro Ensemble Company, Dies at 78. He was the co-founder of the Alumni of this company and directed many of their productions. TWITTER But in 2013 Mr. Weldon said one thing that kept him going was when young theater aspirants came into his office, filled with photographs of actors who had worked with the company. “I hated it. For the Canadian lawyer and politician, see, https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Sophia-Romma/, "Charles Weldon, Artistic Director of Negro Ensemble Company, Dies at 78", "Charles Weldon, Who Led the Negro Ensemble Company, Dies at 78", "Actor, Director, and Artistic Leader Charles Weldon Dies at Age 78", "Remembering NEC Artistic Director Charles Weldon, dead at 78", "Actor Charles Weldon, Director Of Negro Ensemble Company, Dead At 78", "Interview: Living Legend Charles Weldon, A.D. of The Negro Ensemble Company", "All That Chat - CHARLES WELDON, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, DIES AT 78", "Diamonds and Pearls" - Charles Weldon of The Paradons, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Weldon&oldid=971197893, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Negro Ensemble Theater Companies 50th Anniversary revival of, This page was last edited on 4 August 2020, at 18:44. He was 78. He was 78. His last project was the short film Paris Blues in Harlem, which he co-produced and starred in with Nadhege Ptah and Michele Baldwin, who cast him in the project. Charles Weldon, an actor and director who led the New York theater troupe the Negro Ensemble Company for the past 13 years, died on Dec. 7 in Manhattan. “Mr. He was 78. Charles Weldon (June 1, 1940 – December 7, 2018) was an actor, director, educator, singer, and songwriter. Charles Weldon and S. Epatha Merkerson in the play “Birdie Blue” at the Second Stage Theater in Manhattan in 2005. Yet Mr. Weldon’s path was not without obstacles and detours. Years later, when he was with the Denver Center Theater Company, he would draw on his trucker experiences to create, with Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman, a revue called “Mama Hated Diesel,” which centered on stories and songs about truckers. He auditioned for “Big Time Buck White,” the play that would be turned into the Broadway musical “Buck White.” He didn’t get the part, but he was given work as an understudy and running lights. Weldon's final stage appearance was as the central character of the Mayor in a 2016 revival of NEC co-founder Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence. Privacy | He was the brother of actress Ann Weldon, singer Maxine Weldon, and Mae Frances Weldon. Charles Jauverni Weldon was born on June 1, 1940, in Wetumka, Okla. His parents, Beatrice (Jennings) and Roosevelt Weldon, were farm workers, and when he was a year old they moved the family to Bakersfield, Calif., following farm work. Charles Weldon (June 1, 1940 – December 7, 2018) was an actor, director, educator, singer, and songwriter. Sitemap | 12:40 PM PST 12/14/2018 He was an actor and producer, known for Malcolm X (1992), Stir Crazy (1980) and A Woman Called Moses (1978). Other later roles included Hedley, the Bible-quoting ranter, in August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” which he played in a revival by the Signature Theater Company in Manhattan in 2006. Though “Buck White” had only a short run, it got him some auditions. [4][5], Weldon began his acting career in 1969, with a role in the Oscar Brown Jr.'s musical Big-Time Buck White starring as Muhammad Ali. During his career, he directed numerous company productions, including Colored People Time, Savanna Black and Blue, The Waiting Room and NEC's 50th-anniversary revival of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play. NEC has been a touchstone for African-American theater artists since 1965. Another son, Nick, died in 2015. He was the artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company for thirteen years. Born in Wetumka, Oklahoma, in 1940, Weldon worked in cotton fields as a teenager and achieved early success as a member of a doo-wop group called The Pardons, and, subsequently, a soul group.
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