Kevin Rodney Sullivan

Last updated
Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Born (1958-08-03) August 3, 1958 (age 65)
San Francisco, California [1]
Occupation(s)Actor, film director
Years active1979–present

Kevin Rodney Sullivan (born August 3, 1958) is an American film and television actor and film director.

Contents

Early life and acting career

Sullivan is a San Francisco native who began his career as a child actor. The youngest of three children, he grew up in St. Francis Square in the Fillmore district. His father was a bus driver, and his mother was a receptionist for St. Mary's Hospital. According to Sullivan, he was "one step up from a housing project". [2]

During sixth grade while performing in A Midsummer Night's Dream , Sullivan's talents were noted by Ann Brebner, who hired him and his entire class as extras in a 1970 Sidney Poitier film, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! . This was his first experience with cinema. Brebner would continue to give Sullivan various auditions. In 1970, he was cast in an Alpha-Bits Cereal commercial, earning over $7,000. He continued to obtain small roles in theater productions and doing commercials. Most notably, he got a role as the Master of Ceremonies during an episode of Sesame Street being filmed live at Golden Gate Park. He had to "sit on this big garbage can with a microphone and introduce the various skits," with Jim Henson controlling the puppets. [2]

Sullivan was cast in Thumb Tripping with Meg Foster, following which he got a part in a series called Wee Pals on the Go . The series was based on a comic strip by Morrie Turner and featured an integrated neighborhood. He played Randy, "a kid with a big Afro who loved sports," according to Sullivan. [2] For Christmas, the producer gave Sullivan his first 8-millimeter camera with which he first experimented in film.

He acquired a scholarship to St. Ignatius College Preparatory, a Jesuit all-boys high school in the Sunset District of San Francisco and graduated in 1976. [3] "The school had 1,200 boys; only 40 were black," according to Sullivan. [2] Sullivan was challenged in his classwork for the first time; he was also barred from the theater program because of his race. "I felt out of place and no one tried to make me feel otherwise," said Sullivan. [2] At one point, he joined the Young Conservatory of the American Theater in downtown San Francisco. During his senior year, he convinced the theater department to allow him to direct Ceremonies in Dark Old Men , by Lonne Elder; following this, the school asked him to be the lead in a production of The Teahouse of the August Moon .

Due to his acting successes, Sullivan applied to the Juilliard School in New York. John Houseman, who had recently received an Oscar for his role in
The Paper Chase , was his interviewer. Houseman's comments on Sullivan's abilities at the time: "You have talent, but you're only 17 years old. Most of our students come here after four years of college. I don't think you're ready for New York City just yet." [2]

Sullivan ended up at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he was offered a theater scholarship. He applied to be an English major, as he
was growing increasingly interested in writing. "I was a whale in a fishbowl," said Sullivan, who was overqualified for the college's theater program. [2]
He played the lead, Proteus, in Two Gentlemen of Verona , rather than the supporting role for which he had auditioned. Subsequently, Sullivan was in numerous plays and was chosen to direct a production of Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, a play by William Hanley. He decided to produce his own play as an independent study, left Willamette and never went back.

In the summer of 1987, Sullivan headed to Los Angeles. He began by working with a friend and fellow actor in Hollywood and began to write scripts. On one four-day trip to DC, he picked up inspiration for characters from fellow passengers. While his scripts went largely unnoticed, the trip would inspire later works. [2] In the meantime, his acting was noticed after he auditioned for a few movie roles, including Lieutenant in More American Graffiti (1979), Tyrone in Night Shift (1982), March in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and John Grant in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984).

Early screenwriting

At 22, the first TV script he sold was for an episode of Fame for the ABC network. This connection to ABC allowed him to write the TV drama series Knightwatch in 1988. In 1992, Sullivan directed the pilot for an ABC series, Moe's World, a story narrated by a young boy killed in a car crash. The story "tackled" topics such as teenage pregnancy and death as well as other topics relevant to teenagers. [4] However, while ABC bought the pilot, the show was never picked up. Fox considered purchasing the show but did not follow through.

Despite that minor setback, this background allowed Sullivan to jump into directing movies for HBO: the short film "Long Black Song", which was one of three in the America's Dream (1996) anthology movie, and Soul of the Game (1996). The later was a docudrama on how African Americans "broke the baseball color barrier" which follows the "triumphant and tragic stories" of Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson as they make their way out of the Negro leagues, and into the Majors. [5] "For African-Americans in this century," Sullivan told The New York Times regarding Soul of the Game, "one man's victory is often the result of others paving the way, sometimes making the triumph both bitter and sweet". [5] The film was eventually pulled and is no longer available on TV.

Sullivan's successes presented him with many opportunities, including the ability to collaborate with George Lucas on Red Tails , a story about the Tuskegee airmen, as well as with Norman Jewison on an adaptation of The Good Times Are Killing Me. [6] In addition to these series, Sullivan also produced Frank's Place (1987), I'll Fly Away (1991), Boy Meets Girl (1993), and Cosmic Slop (1994), before his first major production. [7]

Major film productions

The movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) swept the NAACP Image Awards, won the award for Outstanding Picture [6] and was Kevin Rodney Sullivan's Hollywood directorial debut. The movie was based on a popular novel at the time, and follows the story of Stella (played by Angela Bassett) who is a single mother of one who finds love in Jamaica with a man much younger than her named Winston (played by Taye Diggs). It also had other notable stars such as Whoopi Goldberg, who plays Stella's best friend. [8] The film, while not the first to use a tropic paradise as its background, "may be the first to blatantly portray a tropical paradise as a sexual mecca beckoning tired American businesswomen to shed their clothes and inhibitions," according to a The New York Times review. [9] Despite some mixed reviews, Sullivan still "provides a movie that speaks in a recognizable way to a black audience, particularly black women who have found themselves omitted from serious screen depiction over the decades". [9]

Sullivan's next major production was Conviction (2002), based on the autobiography of Carl Upchurch entitled Convicted in the Womb. The movie wrestles with race relations and issues pertaining to jail and gang violence, as well as the use of anti-Black language. After being reformed in jail, the main character goes on a mission to help reduce youth violence by inviting the leaders of the largest gangs to a church meeting. Upchurch had a cameo as a jail guard.

Sullivan then produced Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), a sequel to Barbershop (2002). The original cast returned with some additions. Notable cast members included Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Anthony Anderson, and a brief cameo by Queen Latifah in promotion of her spinoff of the Barbershop franchise.

The latest major film production by Kevin Sullivan was Guess Who (2005); the idea for the movie was originally a collaborative effort by Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac. As Kutcher explained in an interview about his choice of directors, "I had a conversation with Kevin before we started the movie. And the reason that I liked Kevin - we picked Kevin to do the movie, Bernie and I did, because what he knew the movie needed was heart. And he was more concerned about the heart than the comedy". [10] The movie focuses on a young white man (played by Kutcher) attempting to marry an African American woman, while trying to seek the approval of her overprotective father (played by Bernie Mac). Working with Sullivan did have its impact upon the film, as Kutcher explains, "Well, working for Kevin Sullivan was a very different experience for me. Kevin didn't just let us go. At no point in time did Kevin just let us go... And I think that that brought a different performance for each of us from what we'd done before". [10] The movie received mostly mixed reviews.

Recent screenwriting

In the four years between How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Conviction, Sullivan wrote and collaborated with the producers of The West Wing (2000), which followed a fictional White House staff about on various fictional activities.

Sullivan then developed a pilot for the series Watching Ellie (2002), and wrote some scripts for The Guardian (2002) which was a crime drama that ran for two seasons.

Following the release of Conviction, he began working on scripts for The Henry Lee Project (2003). This series followed a veteran policeman turned private detective. The part of the policeman was played by notable actor Danny Glover.

The most notable of his recent screenplays is 30 Rock (2008), which has received national acclaim and many awards including Emmy awards for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The show was renewed by NBC for a sixth season in 2010. Tina Fey was the original project writer, and created the storyline to be based on her own life story. Sullivan collaborated with three other producers, including Alec Baldwin on this show, especially on the second season. However, despite winning awards for being an outstanding comedy, 30 Rock has been chronically underrated throughout its six seasons of being on air, with a viewership of nearly 5.3 million viewers.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Smith</span> American filmmaker (born 1970)

Kevin Patrick Smith is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, characters who also appeared in Smith's later films Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Clerks III (2022) which are set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films have crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon known as the "View Askewniverse", named after Smith's production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.

Barbershop may refer to:

<i>Clerks</i> (film) 1994 film by Kevin Smith

Clerks is a 1994 American black-and-white comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith in his feature directorial debut. Starring Smith along with Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, and Scott Mosier, it presents a day in the lives of store clerks Dante Hicks (O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Anderson) as well as their acquaintances. It is the first of Smith's View Askewniverse films, and introduces several recurring characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Kline</span> American actor

Kevin Delaney Kline is an American actor. Kline is known for his over five decade career as a leading man on stage and screen. He is the recipient of an Academy Award and three Tony Awards, and has been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

<i>Barbershop</i> (film) 2002 American film by Tim Story

Barbershop is a 2002 American comedy-drama film and the first installment in the Barbershop series directed by Tim Story and written by Mark Brown, Don D. Scott and Marshall Todd, from a story by Brown. It was produced by George Tillman Jr., Robert Teitel and Brown. The film stars Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze, Keith David and Cedric the Entertainer. Its plot revolves around the social life in a barbershop on the South Side of Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Kaufman</span> American filmmaker and novelist

Charles Stuart Kaufman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He both wrote and directed the films Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, Kaufman released his first novel, Antkind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ned Beatty</span> American actor (1937–2021)

Ned Thomas Beatty was an American actor. In a career that spanned five decades, he appeared in more than 160 films. Throughout his career, Beatty gained a reputation for being "the busiest actor in Hollywood". His film appearances included Deliverance (1972), White Lightning (1973), All the President's Men (1976), Network (1976), Superman (1978), Superman II (1980), Back to School (1986), Rudy (1993), Shooter (2007), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Rango (2011). He also had the series regular role of Stanley Bolander in the first three seasons of the hit NBC TV drama Homicide: Life on the Street.

<i>Barbershop 2: Back in Business</i> 2004 American film

Barbershop 2: Back in Business is a 2004 American comedy-drama film directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on February 6, 2004. A sequel to 2002's Barbershop and the second film in the Barbershop film series, also from State Street producing team Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr., Barbershop 2 deals with the impact of gentrification on the reputation and livelihood of a long-standing south Chicago barbershop. Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, and several more actors reprise their roles from the first Barbershop film. However, a few of the original film's actors including Tom Wright and Jazsmin Lewis return with smaller roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Williamson (screenwriter)</span> American screenwriter, director, and producer (born 1965)

Kevin Meade Williamson is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is known for developing and writing the screenplay for the slasher film Scream (1996)—which launched the Scream franchise—along with those for Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 4 (2011). He is also known for creating the WB teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003), the CW supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017), the Fox crime thriller series The Following (2013–2015) and the CBS All Access thriller series Tell Me a Story (2018–2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Tillman Jr.</span> American film director

George Tillman Jr. is an American filmmaker.

<i>Guess Who</i> (film) 2005 American romantic comedy film by Kevin Rodney Sullivan

Guess Who is a 2005 American comedy film directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. It is a loose remake of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, but instead of being about a black man meeting the parents of his white fiancée, this film focuses on a white man meeting his black fiancée's parents. It stars Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, and Zoë Saldaña.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Mackie</span> American actor

Anthony Dwane Mackie is an American actor. Mackie made his film debut starring in the semi-biographical drama film 8 Mile (2002). He was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for his performance in the LGBT drama Brother to Brother (2004), and in the same year, appeared in psychological thriller The Manchurian Candidate, the Spike Lee TV film Sucker Free City, and the sports film Million Dollar Baby. Mackie starred in Half Nelson (2006); in 2008, Mackie both appeared in the action thriller Eagle Eye and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Hurt Locker. He portrayed Tupac Shakur in Notorious (2009) and later starred in Night Catches Us (2010), and The Adjustment Bureau and Real Steel.

Scott Hylands, born Scott Hylands Douglas, is a Canadian actor who has appeared in movies, on television, and on the stage. Due to his longevity and versatility, critics have called him "one of Canada's greatest actors."

<i>Five on the Black Hand Side</i> 1973 comedy film by Oscar Williams

Five on the Black Hand Side is a 1973 African American comedy film based on the 1969 play of the same name by Charlie L. Russell. It was shot in Los Angeles, California. Leonard Jackson appeared as John Henry Brooks. He was cast in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple fifteen years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superman in film</span> Film adaptations of DC Comics Superman franchise

DC Comics's Superman franchise, based on the character of the same name created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in June 1938, has seen the release of various films since its inception. The character debuted in cinemas in a series of animated shorts beginning in 1941, and then was the protagonist of two movie serials in 1948 and 1950. An independent studio, Lippert Pictures, released the first Superman feature film, Superman and the Mole Men, starring George Reeves, in 1951. In 1973, the film rights to the Superman character were purchased by Ilya Salkind, Alexander Salkind, and Pierre Spengler. After numerous scripts and several years in development, Richard Donner was hired as their director, and he shot two films, Superman (1978), and Superman II (1980), at the same time, both starring Christopher Reeve. Donner had already shot eighty percent of Superman II before it was decided to finish shooting the first film. The Salkinds fired Donner after Superman's release and commissioned Richard Lester as the director to finish Superman II. Lester returned to direct Superman III (1983). The Salkinds also produced the related spin-off Supergirl (1984). They then sold the rights to Cannon Films, which produced the poorly reviewed Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). Ilya Salkind commissioned a fifth Superman script before Warner Bros. acquired the rights entirely in 1993.

<i>No Strings Attached</i> (film) 2011 film by Ivan Reitman

No Strings Attached is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed and co-produced by Ivan Reitman. Starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, the film is about two friends who decide to make a pact to have a "no strings attached" relationship, without falling in love with each other. The film was released in the United States on January 21, 2011.

Barbershop is an American comedy media franchise that started in 2002 with Barbershop, directed by Tim Story. Barbershop 2: Back in Business was directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan and released in 2004, while the third film, Barbershop: The Next Cut directed by Malcolm D. Lee, was released in April 2016. A spin-off starring Queen Latifah, Beauty Shop, was released in 2005, along with a television series of the same name debuting in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Smith's unrealized projects</span>

The following is a list of unproduced Kevin Smith projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Kevin Smith mostly has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects are officially cancelled and scrapped or fell into development hell.

Tracy Yvonne Oliver is an American film and television writer, producer, director, and actress. Oliver originally starred in the web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, before serving as a staff writer on ABC's The Neighbors and STARZ's Survivor's Remorse.

<i>Clerks III</i> 2022 comedy film by Kevin Smith

Clerks III is a 2022 American dark comedy-drama film written, produced, directed, and edited by Kevin Smith and starring Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson and Smith. It serves as a sequel to the 1994 and 2006 Clerks films, and is the ninth overall feature film set in the View Askewniverse. In the film, Randal Graves, after surviving a massive heart attack, enlists his friends and fellow clerks Dante Hicks, Elias Grover, and Jay and Silent Bob to make a movie about their lives at the Quick Stop Convenience store that started it all.

References

  1. ↑ Kevin Rodney Sullivan Biography ((?)-)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fenjves, Pablo F., and Rocky Lang. How I Broke into Hollywood: Success Stories from the Trenches. New York: Regan, 2006. ISBN   978-0-06-078964-0 Print.
  3. ↑ "1976 by SiPrep". 1976 by SiPrep. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  4. ↑ ISBN   978-0-8240-3796-3 Handy, Debra. Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, 1991–1992: Volume 17. New York: Garland, 1994. Print.
  5. 1 2 ISBN   978-0-252-07224-6 Ribowsky, Mark. Josh Gibson: the Power and the Darkness. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2004. Print.
  6. 1 2 Kevin Rodney Sullivan - Filmbug Kevin Rodney Sullivan
  7. ↑ Kevin Rodney Sullivan The National Name Database: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
  8. ↑ ISBN   978-0-292-70178-6 Donalson, Melvin Burke. Black Directors in Hollywood. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2003. Print.
  9. 1 2 FILM REVIEW - FILM REVIEW - He Likes Video Games? Nobody's Perfect - Review - NYTimes.com The New York Times. By Stephen Holden
  10. 1 2 Ashton Kutcher Interview - Punk'd, Guess Who, That 70s Show Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine Hollywood Movies: An Interview with Ashton Kutcher
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.