Bill Duke
About
Biography
Filmography
Bibliography
Biography
Black performer-director-writer whose work ranges from primetime TV and film to theater and literature. Duke began his film acting career in Michael Schultz's boisterous comedy "Car Wash" (1976), shortly after he started writing for the TV series "Good Times." A prolific TV director with scores of primetime episodes to his credit, including "Knots Landing," "Falcon Crest," "Hill Street Blues," "Spenser: For Hire," "A Man Called Hawk," "City of Angels," "New York Undercover" and the miniseries "Miracle's Boys," he won acclaim for his award-winning PBS film "The Killing Floor" (1984), about WWI stockyard workers, and "The Meeting" (1989), about a hypothetical encounter between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Duke's first theatrical feature, "A Rage in Harlem" (1991), based on a Chester Himes crime novel, was selected as an official entry in competition at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. As an actor, he has turned in memorable performances as the villainous gay pimp in "American Gigolo" (1980), Arnold Schwarzenegger's comrade in "Commando" (1985) and "Predator" (1987), and the heavy in "Bird on a Wire" (1990). As his film credits--when not playing bad guys Duke specialized in menacing law enforcement agents--seemed to multiply exponentially, some of the more memorable films on his resume included "Menace II Society" (1993), "Payback" (1999), "The Limey" (1999), "Exit Wounds" (2001) and "Red Dragon" (2002). Duke also began reappearing on the small screen, playing Carla Gugino's colleague Amos Andrews in the critically beloved but short-lived ABC series "Karen Sisco" (2004) based on the Elmore Leonard character from the 1998 film "Out of Sight," and a recurring role as Capt. Bob Parish on the slick MTV-style NBC cop drama "Fastlane" (2002-2003), a series which he also directed. Duke got one of his larger roles as the drug kingpin Levar in director Jim Sheridan's urban drama "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" (2005) based on the real life of star Curtis "50 Cent" Johnson.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Director (Special)
Cast (Special)
Producer (Special)
Director (TV Mini-Series)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1969
Began acting career on New York stage in Le Roi Jones's "Slave Ship" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
1970
Off-Broadway acting debut in Douglas Turner Ward's "Day of Absence" with the Negro Ensemble Company
1971
Broadway acting debut in Melvin Van Pebbles' "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death"
1972
Off-Broadway directing debut, "The Secret Place" by Garrett Morris
1972
TV movie acting debut, "Santiago's Ark" for ABC Afterschool Specials
1974
Began writing for TV series, "Good Times" (1973-79)
1976
Feature film acting debut, "Car Wash"
1979
Directed first short, "The Hero"
1979
Directed for TV series, "Knots Landing"
1980
Cast in Alex Haley's TV series, "Palmerstown, U.S.A" for two seasons as a fictional representative of Haley's father
1984
Directed "The Killing Floor"; filmed as the pilot for a 10-part PBS series; received first theatrical release March 1992
1991
Directed first feature, "A Rage in Harlem"
1993
Helmed "The Cemetery Club"
1997
Directed (executive produced) the under-appreciated gangster flick "Hoodlum"
1998
Helmed a two-part story arc of the UPN drama "Legacy"
1999
Played a corrupt Chicago detective in "Payback"
2000
Helmed episodes of the CBS medical drama "City of Angels"
2000
Directed the A&E TV-movie "Golden Spiders"
2001
Co-starred in "Exit Wounds"
2003
Cast as Amos Andrews in the NBC series "Karen Sisco" based on the feature "Out of Sight"
2005
Cast in Jim Sheridan's urban drama "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"; loosely based on the life of rapper 50 cent
2008
Directed the thriller "Cover"
Family
