Samuel L. Jackson is opening up about his past drug use in a new interview.
Jackson, 70, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for its latest cover story, where he got candid about struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The whole time I was using, sure, I had a good reputation,” he told THR. “I showed up on time, I did my lines. I was great. But there was something that was keeping me from getting to that next place.”
In the early ’90s, Jackson was an understudy for the lead role in The Piano Lesson on Broadway,...
Jackson, 70, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for its latest cover story, where he got candid about struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The whole time I was using, sure, I had a good reputation,” he told THR. “I showed up on time, I did my lines. I was great. But there was something that was keeping me from getting to that next place.”
In the early ’90s, Jackson was an understudy for the lead role in The Piano Lesson on Broadway,...
- 1/10/2019
- by Helen Murphy
- PEOPLE.com
Actor/singer Lou Myers, best known as the restaurant owner Mr Gaines on A Different World, passed away today after a short illness at the age of 76. A native of Chesapeake, West Virginia, Myers had returned to the state and lived in the Charleston, W. Va area. Though, of course, best known for his role as Mr Gaines on World from 1988-1993, Myers appeared in some 44 film and TV roles. He also appeared on the stage in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and King Hedley IV, for which he won the NAACP Best Actor award in a stage production. Among his other stage roles were Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Color Purple on Broadway. As a singer and performer he performed in his...
- 2/21/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Today we are talking to a Tony Award-winning star known for her many impressive appearances on Broadway in Jellys Last Jam, Play On, The Wild Party and her tremendous title turn in the towering Caroline, Or Change - the one and only Tonya Pinkins. Opening up about her career and many of her most memorable roles, Pinkins lets us in to her world and shares experiences of working with some of the most noted names in theatre - George C. Wolfe, Harold Prince, August Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, Lloyd Richards, Daniel Sullivan, David Esbjornson and many more among them - on everything from Merrily We Roll Along, her Broadway debut, to her many musical roles to August Wilsons The Piano Lesson and Radio Golf all the way to last seasons Shakespeare In The Park double-header of The Merry Wives Of Windsor and Measure For Measure. Most importantly, Pinkins fills us in...
- 8/24/2012
- by Pat Cerasaro
- BroadwayWorld.com
Samuel L. Jackson has bad memories of his first stint on Broadway - because it led to a crack cocaine addiction that almost killed him.
The movie star, who will return to the New York stage this month as Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Mountaintop, believes his former brush with Broadway put him in rehab - because he turned to hard drugs to help himself cope with the fact he was actor Charles Dutton's understudy, and never actually got to perform a role he had originated.
The Pulp Fiction star admits it was soul destroying to work so hard to play Boy Willie in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and then never get to to appear onstage.
He explains, "I originated the role at Yale (Repertory Theater) and then I had to understudy him (Dutton) because the role was written for him when he was doing Crocodile Dundee 2, so when Crocodile Dundee 2 was over he came back and he started to do the play. It was pretty much the play that put me in rehab.
"You have to show up every day and sign in and if that person's not there by half hour (before the show) you start getting ready to go on. But he was always there... I had to sit backstage until at least the first act was over and listen to the play onstage, which was kinda running me crazy, so I used to sit on the back steps and smoke crack."
His casual drug habit became a full-blown addiction as Jackson continued to "chase the wind" to get high - and he admits he could have died a little-known actor.
Appearing on U.S. TV's The Late Show With David Letterman on Friday, Jackson confessed, "I was standing on the verge."
He was saved by a drug counsellor friend in Tennessee after Jackson's wife found him passed out on the floor as he was attempting to cook up his fix after a day of heavy drinking.
He added, "He called somewhere upstate in New York and I was in a rehab facility in the next day."
Jackson has been sober for 21 years.
The movie star, who will return to the New York stage this month as Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Mountaintop, believes his former brush with Broadway put him in rehab - because he turned to hard drugs to help himself cope with the fact he was actor Charles Dutton's understudy, and never actually got to perform a role he had originated.
The Pulp Fiction star admits it was soul destroying to work so hard to play Boy Willie in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and then never get to to appear onstage.
He explains, "I originated the role at Yale (Repertory Theater) and then I had to understudy him (Dutton) because the role was written for him when he was doing Crocodile Dundee 2, so when Crocodile Dundee 2 was over he came back and he started to do the play. It was pretty much the play that put me in rehab.
"You have to show up every day and sign in and if that person's not there by half hour (before the show) you start getting ready to go on. But he was always there... I had to sit backstage until at least the first act was over and listen to the play onstage, which was kinda running me crazy, so I used to sit on the back steps and smoke crack."
His casual drug habit became a full-blown addiction as Jackson continued to "chase the wind" to get high - and he admits he could have died a little-known actor.
Appearing on U.S. TV's The Late Show With David Letterman on Friday, Jackson confessed, "I was standing on the verge."
He was saved by a drug counsellor friend in Tennessee after Jackson's wife found him passed out on the floor as he was attempting to cook up his fix after a day of heavy drinking.
He added, "He called somewhere upstate in New York and I was in a rehab facility in the next day."
Jackson has been sober for 21 years.
- 10/2/2011
- WENN
American actor Carl Gordon has lost his battle with blood cancer. He was 78.
He passed away on 20 July at his home in Jetersville, Virginia. The cause of death was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Gordon didn't start acting until he reached his late thirties, and found success on Broadway in plays including the 1971 production of Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death.
He was perhaps best-known for his role as uncle Doaker in the 1990 Broadway production of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Piano Lesson, and as patriarch Andrew Emerson on U.S. TV sitcom Roc from 1991 to 1994 - a show which also featured a young Jamie Foxx.
Gordon continued his TV career after Roc, making guest appearances on hit U.S. TV dramas ER, The Practice and Law and Order.
He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Alston-Gordon, five daughters and a son.
He passed away on 20 July at his home in Jetersville, Virginia. The cause of death was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Gordon didn't start acting until he reached his late thirties, and found success on Broadway in plays including the 1971 production of Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death.
He was perhaps best-known for his role as uncle Doaker in the 1990 Broadway production of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Piano Lesson, and as patriarch Andrew Emerson on U.S. TV sitcom Roc from 1991 to 1994 - a show which also featured a young Jamie Foxx.
Gordon continued his TV career after Roc, making guest appearances on hit U.S. TV dramas ER, The Practice and Law and Order.
He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Alston-Gordon, five daughters and a son.
- 7/26/2010
- WENN
Star of both stage and screen, Carl Gordon, who most of us will likely remember as Charles S. Dutton’s father, Andrew Emerson, on early 90s TV show, Roc, has died at 78 years old.
The cause, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, says the New York Times.
His few listed stage credits include work in 2 August Wilson plays - The Piano Lesson (1990) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2003); his onscreen roles were relegated mostly to TV movies and sitcom roles, from the aforementioned Roc, to episodes of Law & Order, ER, Jag, and more.
Gordon is survived by his 3rd wife, Jacqueline Alston-Gordon; a son, five daughters, nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Rip...
The cause, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, says the New York Times.
His few listed stage credits include work in 2 August Wilson plays - The Piano Lesson (1990) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2003); his onscreen roles were relegated mostly to TV movies and sitcom roles, from the aforementioned Roc, to episodes of Law & Order, ER, Jag, and more.
Gordon is survived by his 3rd wife, Jacqueline Alston-Gordon; a son, five daughters, nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Rip...
- 7/23/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The Tony Award Nominations are upon us. As is my inconsistent tradition, I thought I'd share a little bit about a movies you can rent or think about to create an unfulfilling celluloid guilty-by-association approximation of the Broadway experience of the 2008/2009 season before the TONYs roll around on June 7th. Not everyone gets to New York to see the shows. And even if you live here, like me, you don't get to them in your financially challenged years. Tony Winners Cynthia Nixon (who seems to be everywhere lately, right?) and In the Height's man Lin-Manuel Miranda are announcing them live any minute now.
If you want a reminder of what's eligible which you can use to see who got snubbed check out this eligibility chart.
P L A Y R E V I V A L
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
This is the 2nd in August Wilson's famous 10 play...
If you want a reminder of what's eligible which you can use to see who got snubbed check out this eligibility chart.
P L A Y R E V I V A L
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
This is the 2nd in August Wilson's famous 10 play...
- 5/5/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson died on Sunday of liver cancer. He was 60. Wilson died at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, only four months after he was diagnosed with the disease in an advanced stage. Wilson wrote 10 critically-acclaimed plays about 20th century life for African-Americans, including Gem Of The Ocean and The Piano Lesson. The writer admitted in August he had only months to live, but declared "I've lived a blessed life. I'm ready."...
- 10/4/2005
- WENN
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