Melvin Van Peebles

Melvin Van Peebles born Melvin Peebles August 21 1932 September 21 2021 was an American actor filmmaker writer and composer His feature film debut The Story of a ThreeDay Pass 1967 was based on his own Frenchlanguage novel La Permission and was shot in France as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man in 1970 Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker In 1971 he released his bestknown work creating and starring in the film Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song which led to the creation of the blaxploitation genre although critic Roger Ebert did not consider this example of Van Peebles work to be an exploitation film He followed this up with the musical Dont Play Us Cheap based on his own stage play and continued to make films write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades his final films include the Frenchlanguage film Le Conte du ventre plein 2000 and the absurdist film Confessionsofa ExDoofusItchyFooted Mutha 2008 His son filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss