Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles’ life project has been to defy and redefine the image of blacks in America. Although he is widely categorized as a filmmaker, Van Peebles is also an actor, playwright, novelist and stock options trader. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1932, Van Peebles lived in Mexico as a painter with his then-wife Maria Marx, moved to San Francisco where he worked as a cable car operator, and then moved to Holland to study at the University of Amsterdam. After a move to Paris, he wrote several novels, one of which was adapted into the movie, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967). It was this film about a black soldier’s tryst with a white Parisian woman that led to a contract with Columbia Pictures and the 1970 film Watermelon Man. The film was a comedy about a white man who wakes up one day to find he is now black. There was turmoil between Van Peebles and Columbia over casting and the ending to the film, but in the end Van Peebles prevailed and the film was a modest success. Van Peebles used the proceeds from Watermelon Man to help finance his most well-known film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song which he wrote, directed and scored. The film is violent, low-budget and received an X-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. However, it is considered a turning point in both the portrayal of blacks in American film and marketing to a black audience. Moving away from filmmaking for the next two decades, Van Peebles began writing plays and produced two Broadway Musicals, Ain’t Supposed to Die a natural Death and Don’t Play Us Cheap which was nominated for two Tony Awards. During the 1980s Van Peebles became a stock trader and also continued to guest star in films and television. In 2005 a feature documentary about the life of Van Peebles was released, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and enjoy it).
