Cleavon Little
Cleavon Little was an American actor born on June 1, 1939, in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He gained prominence for his Broadway performances, particularly in the 1970 musical "Purlie," which earned him a Tony Award. After graduating from college in San Diego, Little moved to New York City, where he participated in various Off-Broadway productions and eventually made his Broadway debut in "Jimmy Shine." His film career includes notable appearances in "Blazing Saddles," where he played Sheriff Bart, a role that became iconic for its satirical take on race and bigotry, contributing significantly to American pop culture. In addition to his film work, Little had a presence on television, starring in series such as "Temperatures Rising," "Bagdad Cafe," and "True Colors." Despite facing challenges in the entertainment industry, he left a lasting impact until his passing from colon cancer on October 22, 1992. Little is remembered for his engaging performances and his role as a trailblazer for African American actors in comedy.
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Subject Terms
Cleavon Little
Actor
- Born: June 1, 1939
- Birthplace: Chickasha, Oklahoma
- Died: October 22, 1992
- Place of death: Sherman Oaks, California
An accomplished stage actor, Little is best known for playing the new sheriff of Rock Ridge in Mel Brooks’s politically incorrect and raunchy spoof of Westerns, Blazing Saddles(1974). He also starred in several Off-Broadway and Broadway theater productions, including Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Raisin in the Sun.
Early Life
Cleavon Jake Little (KLEE-vahn) was born on June 1, 1939, to Malachi and DeEtta Jones in Chickasha, Oklahoma. His father was a gardener. Little left Oklahoma to attend college in San Diego, California, and his earliest stage appearances were at the nearby La Jolla Playhouse, notably in The Skin of Our Teeth. After his college graduation in 1965, Little moved to New York City to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in 1967. His Off-Broadway appearances included work in MacBird!, The Resurrection of Lady Lester, and The Great McDaddy. Little costarred with Judd Hirsch in a production of Scuba Duba in 1967; the pair would collaborate in later years in the touring company of Herb Gardner’s Tony Award-winning comedy I’m Not Rappaport.
Little made his Broadway debut in 1968 in Jimmy Shine. Other Broadway credits include Narrow Road to the Deep North in 1972 and All Over Town in 1974. Little’s most acclaimed work on Broadway, however, was as a preacher in the title role of the musical Purlie, for which Little won a Tony Award in 1970. Little married Valerie Wiggins in 1972; they divorced in 1974.
Life’s Work
Little appeared in more than a dozen motion pictures, including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Vanishing Point (1971), Toy Soldiers (1984), and Once Bitten (1985). However, his most memorable role came in Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles (1974), which was nominated for three Academy Awards. A pop-culture phenomenon, Blazing Saddles broke new comedic ground with its broad humor that included flatulent cowhands, racist townspeople, a recovering alcoholic gunslinger, and Bart (Little), the new black sheriff sent by the governor (Brooks) to repulse the citizenry of Rock Ridge. Little’s portrayal of the “dazzling urbanite” sheriff using wiles and wits to rout the bad guys is a comic masterpiece. Blazing Saddles was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, which archives films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Little appeared frequently on television, including the series Temperatures Rising, Bagdad Cafe, and True Colors. Temperatures Rising, a show that ran on ABC for two seasons (1972-1974) and was set in a Washington, D.C., hospital, never found an audience despite a solid cast that included Little, Joan Van Ark, James Whitmore, and Paul Lynde. Bagdad Cafe ran for fifteen episodes and was based on a film of the same title. The short-lived television series starred Whoopi Goldberg, Jean Stapleton, and Little. True Colors, which ran on Fox from 1990 to 1992, dealt with an interracial blended family; Little played Ronald Freeman, a widowed African American dentist who marries a divorced white kindergarten teacher (Stephanie Faracy). Sidney Poitier, Burt Lancaster, and Little appeared together in the television film Separate but Equal in 1991. Little also had an Emmy Award-winning guest role on Hirsch’s series Dear John.
Hirsch and Little toured in I’m Not Rappaport, for which both actors were nominated for Tony Awards in 1986. When Hirsch won the award, he called Little to the stage to share in the moment. Little died of colon cancer at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, on October 22, 1992. In his eulogy, Poitier called Little “a shining example of a better world.”
Significance
Little was famous for playing Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles, a ribald comedy that satirized bigotry and racism, one of many roles that depicted the plight of African Americans. Little’s easygoing, glib patter was his trademark and made him a likable, engaging presence on stage, in film, and on television.
Bibliography
Beaufort, John. “Comedy, Fantasy, and Melodrama on a Park Bench.” The Christian Science Monitor, June 11, 1985, p. 34. Describes Little’s role in the play I’m Not Rappaport.
Collins, Glenn. “Cleavon Little, Award-Winning Actor, Dies at 53.” The New York Times, October 23, 1992. Little’s obituary offers a summary of his career.
Crick, Robert Alan. The Big Screen Comedies of Mel Brooks. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. The lengthy section on Blazing Saddles offers a plot summary and analyzes Little’s performance as Sheriff Bart.
Turner, Matthew R. “Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous Deconstruction and Reinforcement of Generic Conventions in the Western Parody.” Film & History 33, no. 2 (2003): 48-54. This journal article, which features Blazing Saddles, argues that Western parodies subvert the conventions of the Western in ways that breathe new life into the genre.