Biography
Early life and career
Marshall was born in Gary, Indiana, the son of Thelma (née Edwards) and Vereen Marshall, who was a dentist. He attended New York University as an art student, but then trained for a theatre career at the Actors Studio, at the American Theatre Wing, and with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
He made his Broadway debut in 1944 in Carmen Jones. Among his many other Broadway appearances, he understudied Boris Karloff as Captain Hook in Peter Pan in 1950, then played the leading role of De Lawd in the 1951 revival of The Green Pastures (a role he repeated in a BBC telecast of the play in 1958). He performed in Shakespeare plays many times on the stage in the U.S. and Europe, including the title role in at least six productions of Othello. His Othello (which was later captured in a video production in 1981), was called by Harold Hobson of the London Sunday Times "the best Othello of our time," continuing:
"...nobler than [Godfrey] Tearle, more martial than [John] Gielgud, more poetic than [Frederick] Valk. From his first entry, slender and magnificently tall, framed in a high Byzantine arch, clad in white samite, mystic, wonderful, a figure of Arabian romance and grace, to his last plunging of the knife into his stomach, Mr Marshall rode without faltering the play's enormous rhetoric, and at the end the house rose to him."
Marshall even played Othello in a jazz musical version, Catch My Soul, with Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago, in Los Angeles in 1968. He also portrayed on stage Paul Robeson and Frederick Douglass. (Marshall researched Douglass's life for years and portrayed him on television in Frederick Douglass: Slave and Statesman, which he co-produced in 1983.[9])
Film and television career
Marshall's career on screen began in 1952 in Lydia Bailey as a Haitian leader. He followed that with a prominent role as Glycon, comrade and fellow gladiator to Victor Mature in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954). His demeanor, voice and stature gave him a wide range, though he was ill-suited for the subservient roles that many black actors of his generation were most frequently offered. He was Attorney General Edward Brooke in The Boston Strangler and a leader of the Mau-Mau uprising in Something of Value. He received the most widespread fame for his role in the vampire film Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream. In later years, Marshall played the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee's Playhouse, replacing actor Gilbert Lewis, during the 1980s. (The character's catchphrase "Let...the cartoooon...begin!" became immensely popular.)
In the early 1950s, Marshall starred briefly in a series about black police officers, entitled Harlem Detective. The show was canceled when Marshall was named as a communist in the anti-communist newsletter Counterattack. Nonetheless, Marshall managed to continue appearing in both television and films. Marshall is perhaps best remembered by television viewers for his roles as Dr. Richard Daystrom in the Star Trek episode "The Ultimate Computer" and as the travelling opera singer Thomas Bowers on Bonanza. In 1964, he appeared, with actor Ivan Dixon, as the leader of a newly independent African nation and as a THRUSH agent in the first-season episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. entitled "The Vulcan Affair". He won two local Emmys for producing and performing in a PBS production, As Adam Early in the Morning, a poetical theatre piece originally performed on stage.[2] He also was featured in the popular series, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in an episode titled, "The Jar", with actors Pat Buttram and George Lindsey. Marshall also appeared on the British spy series Danger Man (Deadline, 1962). In 1969, he had a special guest appearance as the character Amalek in an episode of the Wild Wild West entitled "The Night of the Egyptian Queen", and also appeared in the Boston strangler film.
Later life and death
In addition to his acting and producing work, Marshall taught acting at various universities including University of California, Irvine and at the Mufandi Institute, an African-American arts and music institution in the Watts section of Los Angeles. He did similar work at Chicago's eta Creative Arts Foundation, which in 1992 named Marshall one of its Epic Men of the 20th century.
Marshall was the unmarried partner for 42 years of Sylvia Gussin Jarrico, former wife of blacklisted screenwriter Paul Jarrico. Marshall died June 11, 2003, from complications arising from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. He is survived by four children: sons Tariq, Malcolm, and Claude Marshall, and daughter, singer Gina Loring. The eulogies at his funeral were spoken by Sidney Poitier, Ivan Dixon, Paul Winfield, and Marla Gibbs.
Marshall was considered, by many, to be a much underrated actor and one who never got his due. Actor and screenwriter Terek Puckett remarked that Marshall should have had a much more successful and larger screen career. Even saying that Marshall would have been a perfect choice for the role Thulsa Doom in Conan.
Obituary of William Horace Marshall
William Marshall, 78
Stage, screen actor
starred in `Blacula'
June 19, 2003|By Simone M. Sebastian, Tribune staff reporter
Some thespians herald William Marshall as one of the greatest Othellos of the 20th Century. Children of the 1980s laughed with him as the King of Cartoons on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." And most Americans remember him as Blacula in the 1972 film. But to Mr. Marshall, the hallmark of his career was bringing the lives of historical black. He was marked by "his devotion and interest in the presentation of great black leaders of the past," said Anita Rutzky, a longtime teacher and friend of Mr. Marshall. "He wanted the world to hear them because they weren't in the textbooks."
Mr. Marshall, 78, a renowned Shakespearean and film actor, died Wednesday, June 11, of Alzheimer's disease in a Los Angeles nursing facility.
He was known for his wide-ranging acting talent and vocal abilities to match. Having played Othello numerous times, from New York's Shakespeare in the Park to the jazz adaptation, "Catch My Soul," Mr. Marshall was called "the best Othello of our time" by The London Sunday Times.
Mr. Marshall fought against the blaxploitation films of the 1960s and '70s and brought more positive black characters and historical figures to the theater.
When producers of "Blacula" offered him the title role, "he thought they were joking," said his companion of 45 years, Sylvia Jarrico. "He didn't want to play this victimized ordinary fellow." Mr. Marshall re-created the character as an African prince on a mission to end the slave trade.
In 1973, he told the Chicago Tribune he was disturbed by the state of black theater and was dedicating his career to portraying "the really heroic history of my people."
He performed a one-man PBS broadcast of abolitionist Frederick Douglass during the 1980s and later adapted the act to stage, performing it across the country for over a decade.
"That was the theme of his work," Jarrico said. Mr. Marshall was born in Gary, and received a bachelor's degree from Governors State University. In 1945, Mr. Marshall left Chicago for New York, eventually settling in Los Angeles in 1966.
Mr. Marshall returned to the Chicago area many times to perform and give guest lectures to drama students. He produced and performed "As Adam Early in the Morning," a theater adaptation of poetry and literature at ETA Creative Arts Foundation during the 1970s. He also starred in the 1980 production of "An Enemy of the People" at the Goodman Theater.
He appeared on television shows including "The Jeffersons" and "Star Trek."
Mr. Marshall was honored by ETA in 1992 as one of the "Epic Men of the 20th Century."
"He was an icon, a cultural icon," said Abena Joan Brown, co-founder and president of ETA. "You can't make a greater impact than that."
In addition to his companion, Mr. Marshall is survived by three sons Claude, Malcolm, and Tariq; a daughter, Gina Loring; and a grandchild.
William Clarence Marshall III
William Clarence Marshall is the son of William H. Marshall. He has been heard in many opera house. he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, as the bass soloist in Beethoven's Mass in C. Audiences have heard him in opera houses throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. Additionally, he has performed the role of "Joe" in Hal Prince's production of Show Boat on Broadway and the national tour. He has been widely acclaimed as an "exceptional" Porgy in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, and as a "wonderful" Pooh-Bah in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. The accomplished pianist/composer Jeremie Michael has chosen Mr. Marshall as the original voice for his new workAfter Hours, A Song Cycle.
Michael and Marshall premiered After Hours, a Song Cycle. An Aspen Music Festival Fellow, Mr. Marshall's television appearances include singing the role of Parson All talk in excerpts from Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, broadcast in Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices In Opera, on PBS' Great Performances. He also appeared as a featured soloist in An African-American Christmas, with Ruby Dee and the late Ossie Davis, for Vision TV. He has sung the following roles in fully staged productions: Balthazar (Amahl and the Night Visitors); Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro); Carl Magnus (A Little Night Music); Colline (La Boheme); Don Alfonso (Cosi fan Tutte); Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd); and Sarastro (Die Zauberfloete). In the Shadow Box Theatre's award-winning children's recording, How The Turtle Got Its Shell: An African Tale, Mr. Marshall created the roles "Nyame, The Sky God," and "Osebo, The Leopard". This work was selected as a "Notable Children's recording" by the American Library Association. In The Holiday Spirit His debut CD is available from williamclarencemarshall@yahoo.com. Mr. Marshall resides in New York City and Cleveland. Mr. Marshall is a member of AEA, AGMA, CAEA.
Mr. Marshall has appeared locally with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Arts Renaissance Tremont, At Home In The Arts, Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Solon Philharmonic, Time Traveller, Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Warren Philharmonic, Opera Cleveland, Opera Western Reserve, Opera per Tutti, Edna Duffy Liturgical Ensemble, Firestone High School Symphonic Choir, Forest City Singers, Jazz Arts and the R. Nathaniel Dett Choir of the Cleveland School of the Arts, Summit Choral Society, Bad Epitaph Theatre, Beck Center, Carousel Dinner Theatre, Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre, Kalliope Stage, Karamu House, Playhouse Square, Porthouse Theatre and the Solon Center for the Arts.
Actor / Opera singer William Clarence Marshall III on the Playa T
William Marshall (aka Blacula) Sings on Rawhide (1964)
Rare Interview with William Marshall (Blacula)
William Marshall (Blacula) Interview on Live from L.A. (1991)
Ol' Man River (Jerome Kern / Oscar Hamerstein)
William Clarence Marshall sings "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" a
William Clarence Marshall performs Ol' Man River
William Clarence Marshall & the CSA Jazz Arts Choir perform Black
William Clarence Marshall performs the National Anthem for the
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