Bill Duke has enjoyed success on both sides of the camera in a career encompassing both acting and directing for movies, television, and the stage.
Duke grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, becoming the first member of his family to attend college. He majored in speech and drama at Boston University before earning his M.F.A. from the illustrious Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
He spent the next few years writing and directing numerous off-Broadway plays, winning the 1974 Adelco Award for the New York Shakespeare Festival presentation of "Unfinished Women." His films include Car Wash, American Gigolo, Action Jackson, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination, Bird on a Wire, Menace II Society, Predator, Commando, Susan's Plan, Black Jaq, Payback, Foolish, The Limey, Fever, Never Again, Exit Wounds, Love and a Bullet, and National Security. He also starred in the acclaimed Alex Haley series, "Palmerstown, USA." When not before the cameras, Duke studied directing and graduated from the renowned American Film Institute, where his student project, "The Hero," won the Life Achievement Award for Best Young Director and the Gold Award at the Houston International Film Festival. He continued to hone his directing skills on episodes of such television series as "Hill Street Blues," "Knots Landing," "Miami Vice," "Cagney & Lacey", "Hunter," "Dallas," "Matlock," "Starman," "Twilight Zone," "America's Dream," "City of Angels," "Angel," "Fastlane," and "Deacons for Defense."
In 1984, Duke helmed the PBS drama "The Killing Floor," which screened at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. He followed with the PBS presentations of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle, which brought him an Emmy Award; and "The Meeting," depicting a fictional encounter between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Duke garnered NAACP Image Award nominations for both of these outstanding dramas.
He made his feature film directorial debut on the screen adaptation of Chester Himes' novel A Rage in Harlem, starring Danny Glover, Gregory Hines and Forest Whitaker. He went on to direct The Cemetery Club, the sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and the contemporary thriller Deep Cover, marking his first collaboration with Laurence Fishburne.
More recently, Duke directed a segment of HBO's highly-praised trilogy "America's Dream," entitled "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black," for which he won Cable ACE and NAACP Image Awards for Best Director, and the pilot for the series "New York Undercover." As a writer, Duke collaborated with actor Danny Glover on a book of photo essays, Black Light: The African-American Hero, which chronicles the success of ninety notable artists whose achievements have significantly illuminated the African-American experience.
He also directed the inspiring "A Town Hall Meeting: Creating A Sense of Community" for the Los Angeles-based Artists Against Homelessness.
Donated By Bill Duke to Dennis Matthews
©2005, Yagya Productions, a Duke Media Company