Damien Leake

Last updated

Damien Leake (born August 12, 1952, [1] in The Bronx, New York City) is an American actor and world record-holding masters track and field athlete.

Starting with a role in 1973's Serpico , Leake has had a continuous career appearing in some 70 motion pictures, plus numerous television and stage acting roles. Through the 1980s he was typecast as a "a tender, sensitive . . . half-crazed killer" including roles in Death Wish and Apocalypse Now . [2]

Leake has branched out to other jobs related to the entertainment industry. He claims to having been a singer, dancer, director, musician, composer, musical director, vocal arranger, playwright, stage fight choreographer and ventriloquist. [3]

On August 28, 1963, just days after his eleventh birthday, Leake joined his parents attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. When King was assassinated less than five years later, Leake began what has become a form of silent protest by remaining seated during the U.S. national anthem. The protest almost caused him to be tried in court-martial when he was in the Army, stationed at Fort Dix. In 2016, a similar protest by Colin Kaepernick caught mass media attention and the ire of then President Trump.

“Does it ever occur to you that the playing of the national anthem has no place at a sporting event, period? Those of you who know me from high school may remember that I decided to start sitting during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner on April 4th 1968, and have been sitting ever since.” [4]

Leake is a top sprinter in masters athletics. On June 16, 2018, he set the world M65 record in the 100 meters, 12.31 +1.3 seconds, in Grass Valley, California. [5]

Leake was a cousin of NFL defensive tackle Roger Brown.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Lemmon</span> American actor (1925–2001)

John Uhler Lemmon III was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leading The Guardian to label him as "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Pacino</span> American actor (born 1940)

Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Sutherland</span> Canadian actor (born 1935)

Donald McNichol Sutherland is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Critics Choice Award. He has been cited as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Courtenay</span> British actor

Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he achieved prominence in the 1960s as part of actors of the British New Wave. Courtenay received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Silver Bear, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Emmy Award. He was knighted for his services to cinema and theatre in the 2001 New Year Honours.

<i>Serpico</i> 1973 biographical-crime film by Sidney Lumet

Serpico is a 1973 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino in the title role. The screenplay was adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from the book of the same name written by Peter Maas with the assistance of its subject, Frank Serpico. The story details Serpico's struggle with corruption within the New York City Police Department during his eleven years of service, and his work as a whistleblower that led to the investigation by the Knapp Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Gambon</span> Irish-English actor (1940–2023)

Sir Michael John Gambon was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career, he received three Olivier Awards and four BAFTA TV Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Jacobi</span> English actor (born 1938)

Sir Derek George Jacobi is an English actor. Jacobi is known for his work at the Royal National Theatre and for his film and television roles. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, two Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Randolph (actor)</span> American actor (1915–2004)

Emanuel Hirsch Cohen, better known by the stage name John Randolph, was an American film, television and stage actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stacy Keach</span> American actor (born 1941)

Walter Stacy Keach Jr. is an American actor, active in theatre, film and television since the 1960s. Keach first distinguished himself in Off-Broadway productions and remained a prominent figure in American theatre across his career, particularly as a noted Shakespearean. He is the recipient of several theatrical accolades, four Drama Desk Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards and two Obie Awards for Distinguished Performance by an Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Arthur Kopit's 1969 production of Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Grey</span> American actor, singer, dancer, director, and photographer (born 1932)

Joel Grey is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical Cabaret on Broadway and in Bob Fosse's 1972 film adaptation. He has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award. He earned the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA Track & Field</span> US governing body for track and field

USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking. The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin-off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected president Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members, but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, and they cannot win USATF medals, prize money, or score points for a team, per World Athletics regulations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Zahn</span> American actor

Steven James Zahn is an American actor. His film roles include Reality Bites (1994), Stuart Little (1999), Daddy Day Care (2003), Shattered Glass (2003), Sahara (2005), Chicken Little (2005), the Diary of a Wimpy Kid trilogy (2010–2012), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). On television, Zahn appeared as Davis McAlary on HBO's Treme (2010–2013), and as Mark Mossbacher in the first season of the HBO satire comedy miniseries The White Lotus (2021), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Zahn won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Happy, Texas (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damien Dempsey</span> Irish singer and songwriter

Damien Dempsey is an Irish singer and songwriter who mixes traditional Irish folk contemporary lyrics that deliver social and political commentaries on Irish society. Damien sings in his native, working-class accent in the English language, and to a lesser extent in the Irish language.

Francis Douglas Arthur Keston, generally known as John Keston, was a British-born American stage actor and singer who was best known as a world record-breaking runner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamini Fonseka</span> Sri Lankan actor-politician (1936–2004

Kala Keerthi Sembuge Gamini Shelton Fonseka, was a Sri Lankan film actor, film director and politician. Often considered as the Greatest Actor in the Sinhala Cinema, Fonseka dominated the cinema in 1960s and 1970s to bagged Best Actor award in multiple times. Apart from acting, he was the Deputy Speaker of Sri Lanka Parliament from 1989 to 1994 and Governor of the North-Eastern Province from 1995 to 1998.

Payton Jordan was the head coach of the 1968 United States Olympic track and field team, one of the most powerful track teams ever assembled, which won a record twenty-four medals, including twelve golds. He was born in Whittier, California. Jordan was exceedingly successful as a collegiate track coach for a decade at Occidental College and for 23 years at Stanford University. A star three-sport athlete in his youth, Jordan more recently became one of the most dominant track athletes of all time, as a sprinter, in senior divisions. Jordan died of cancer at his home in Laguna Hills, California on February 5, 2009.

Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for athletes of 35 years of age and over. The events include track and field, road running and cross country running. Competitors are bracketed into five-year age groups. For international events the first age group is 35 to 39. Men as old as 105 and women in their 100s have competed in running, jumping and throwing events. Masters athletes are sometimes known as "veterans" and the European Masters Championships, for instance, is known as "Eurovets". This and other high level events including biennial World Championships cater largely to elite-level athletes, but many masters athletes are novices to athletics and enjoy the camaraderie offered by masters competition at the local, National and International level. Most National governing bodies for track and field hold annual Masters championships. Prestigious National meets such as the Penn Relays and the United States Olympic Trials put on exhibition events for top masters athletes. Masters athletics is growing Internationally with over 6000 athletes competing at recent World Championships. World; National and Regional records are maintained for each age group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Earl Jones</span> American actor (born 1931)

James Earl Jones is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history". His deep voice has been praised as a "a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects. Over his career, he has received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011.

The 1972 Olympics Black Power salute was a political protest by two U.S. Olympic runners, Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett, during the medal ceremony for the Men's 400 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. This event is sometimes referred to as "The Forgotten Protest". It came four years after the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. national anthem kneeling protests</span> Series of protests by American athletes

Beginning in August 2016, some American athletes have protested against a variety of perceived injustices in the United States by kneeling on one knee while the U.S. national anthem is played. Beginning in 2017, many players also protested against President Donald Trump's criticisms of those involved in the protest, and some against Trump's policies during his time in office. Some observers have described the protests as being politically motivated and/or patriotic and they have also praised the players' social awareness, while others have criticized the drawing of attention to social issues during sporting events, and they have also called the protests unpatriotic or disrespectful. The act itself has become widely referred to as "taking the knee" or "taking a knee".

References

  1. "Damien Leake 2019". FameMoose. Archived from the original on December 2, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  2. Damien Leake, Actor on the Threshold
  3. "About Damien – The Official Site of Damien Leake". DamienLeake.com. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  4. "'Serpico' actor: Why I've sat for national anthem since 1968". mynewsla.com. October 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  5. http://www.legacy.usatf.org/usatf/files/65/65808f9d-07ed-44a5-9a3b-3cd362a283b8.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]

Damien Leake at IMDb