Ted Ross
Ted Ross | |
---|---|
Born | Theodore Ross Roberts June 30, 1934 Zanesville, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | September 3, 2002 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. | (aged 68)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1968–2002 |
Theodore Ross Roberts (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002) was an American actor best known for his role as the
Biography
Ross was born in Zanesville, Ohio, but his mother, Elizabeth Russell, a
His nightclub exploits as a teenager were not very popular at home. He dropped out of Roosevelt High in 1950 and enlisted in the United States Air Force. Two years later at age eighteen, Ross entered an amateur night contest at the Top Hat bar on Germantown Street. Home on furlough, he sang a cover of Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow", won $5 that night and found his calling. After leaving the military, Ross worked his way from Great Falls, Montana, to a strip bar in Los Angeles as a singer and MC. There he landed his first stage role in Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Bigtime Buck White".
The musical began as a workshop in
In 1990, Ross played Troy Maxson in a Cincinnati production of August Wilson's Fences. It was the first time his family saw him perform on stage since the contest in 1952. He came home to Dayton, Ohio for good in 1997 and opened Your Place, a jazz club on West Third Street. Occasionally, Ross sat in and sang in his club, and performed as part of the Dayton Art Institute's Just Jazz series.[3]
Death and honors
Ross was honored by Dayton's Wayman Chapel AME Church, the Miami Valley Fisk University Alumni Club and by WROU-FM as a Black History Month Achiever. He suffered a stroke in 1998, and died from complications four years later at Good Samaritan Hospital on September 3, 2002, aged 68.[4]
Broadway and stage
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1976 | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | Sallison 'Sallie' Potter, Owner of Ebony Aces | |
1977 | Minstrel Man | Charlie Bates, Minstrel Singer | |
1978 | The Wiz | Lion / Fleetwood Coupe de Ville | |
1981 | Arthur | Bitterman | |
1981 | Ragtime | Black Lawyer | |
1982 | Fighting Back | Commissioner | |
1982 | Amityville II: The Possession | Mr. Booth, the Lawyer | |
1984 | Police Academy | Captain Reed | |
1988 | Arthur 2: On the Rocks | Bitterman | |
1988 | Stealing Home | Bud Scott | |
1991 | The Fisher King |
Limo Bum | (final film role) |
References
- IMDb
- ^ West, Ashley (August 20, 2020). "Joseph Stryker: Live Sex… in Show World, Avon Theaters, Melody Burlesk, and Adult Films". Rialto Report.
- ^ "Ted Ross, Actor born". African American Registry. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ "Tony Award Winner Ted Ross Dies". Edwardsville Intelligencer. Dayton, Ohio: AP. September 3, 2002. Retrieved October 7, 2021.