He enrolled at the University of Amsterdam to study astronomy, added the qualifier “Van” to his name and continued pursuing creative projects in terms now called “workaholic.” He also wrote the text to a children’s book called The Big Heart (1957) and pitched himself to Hollywood talent agents but failed to make a connection.įrustrated by his prospects, he was fired from his job, after which he capitalized on the GI Bill and moved his family-then consisting of wife Maria, son Mario and daughter Megan-to Holland in 1959. Stricken with varied creative interests, he produced a few short films, including Three Pickup Men for Herrick (1957) and Sunlight (1957).
While there he dabbled as a painter, became a father and eventually moved to San Francisco where he worked as a cable car operator. The two were married and after three and a half years he left the military for Mexico. After a transitional year at West Virginia State College, he then transferred to Ohio Wesleyan University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1953.Įnlisting in the US Air Force, he met his future wife, Maria Marx, a White woman, in 1955. Honored with the French Legion of Honor in 2001, the 2000 Acapulco Black Film Festival’s Best International Film Award for Le Conte du ventre plein (aka Bellyful, 2000), the 1999 Chicago Underground Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1987 Children’s Live-Action Humanitas Prize for The Day They Came to Arrest the Book, a 1972 Tony Award nomination for “Don’t Play Us Cheap”, two 1971 Tony Award nominations for “Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death”, along with a Grammy Award nomination and Drama Desk Award for this earlier musical, Melvin Van Peebles is more than a one-note film director.īorn Melvin Peebles on August 21, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up during World War II and attended Township High School in Phoenix, Illinois, where he graduated in 1949. A baad asssss nigger is coming back to collect some dues.” What follows is a career summary meant to encourage a cinephile’s interest precisely because Van Peebles and his art are frequently memorable, over and above the catchphrase, “Watch Out. Over the ensuing decades, largely limited to non-cinematic projects, or else marginalized for his maverick sensibility, he has also been a certifiable juggernaut of creative expression in several media and across several industries. Yet Van Peebles is indeed a notable filmmaker, having established himself in the early 1970s. Still active today, he’s most closely associated with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), although this association tends to eclipse his other works and contributions. Web resources Identity Crisis and Sweetback’s Bellyful of a Three-Day Watermelon ManĪs a novelist, memoirist, playwright, musician, composer, actor, editor, director, producer, options trader and icon of Black American cinema, Melvin Van Peebles is a difficult man to pin down.
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