Johnny Sekka, Actor, 72
deb...@comcast.net
Actor
By VARIETY STAFF
Johnny Sekka, an actor who helped challenge racial stereotypes in 1960s
Britain, died of lung cancer in Agua Dulce, Calif. Sept. 14. He was 72.
Funeral services will be held Saturday at 12:30 p.m., at the Old North
Church, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.
Sekka was born in Dakar, Senegal, where he had a difficult childhood --
his father and sister died when he was young, and as a teenager he
wound up as a dockworker, charged with keeping monkeys off the mountain
of peanuts there.
Stowing away on a ship, he ended up in Marseilles, France and made his
way to England. In 1954, he met English black actor Earl Cameron, who
encouraged him to tread the boards. He was hired as a stagehand for
London's Royal Court Theater, which led to bit parts on the stage.
Sekka was cast as the lead in productions including musical "Mr.
Johnson" and "Flame in the Street," a love story between a black man
and a white woman.
In 1962, Sekka and director Tony Richardson left the Broadway
production of another interracial love story, "Kwamina," when he was
told he could not touch his white co-star on stage. In 1968, he
appeared onstage in London in "Bakke's Night of Fame" a role originally
written for a white man, the first time in English theater that a black
actor had been given a role not specifically written for a black man.
He filmed "The Last Safari" in Kenya with Stuart Granger and then moved
to Hollywood, where in 1976, he landed a key role in "Mohammad,
Messenger of God," starring Anthony Quinn.
After the controversial film was released, Sekka and his family
received death threats. He was traveling to promote the film when a
group of black Muslims took 134 hostages in Washington, D.C., demanding
the film not be released. The controversy took its toll on the film,
which was never released wide in the United States.
Sekka appeared in films including "Uptown Saturday Night" and Ryan
O'Neal 1985 starrer "Fever Pitch." On TV, he appeared in shows
including "Z Cars," "Good Times," "Roots: The Next Generations" and
"Babylon 5: The Gathering."
He is survived by wife Cecilia Secka and son Lamine Secka .
Brad Ferguson
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote:
> He filmed "The Last Safari" in Kenya with Stuart Granger and then moved
> to Hollywood, where in 1976, he landed a key role in "Mohammad,
> Messenger of God," starring Anthony Quinn.
IIRC he played a confidant of Mohammed's who does the first-ever call
to prayer from atop some minaret or other.
> Sekka appeared in films including "Uptown Saturday Night" and Ryan
> O'Neal 1985 starrer "Fever Pitch." On TV, he appeared in shows
> including "Z Cars," "Good Times," "Roots: The Next Generations" and
> "Babylon 5: The Gathering."
That last is the only other thing I've ever seen him in. He played the
doctor in the first tryout special.