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Shavar Ross | |
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![]() Shavar Ross in 2011 | |
Born | March 4, 1971 (age 53) The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
Education | Pasadena City College (AA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1980–present |
Website | http://tri7entertainment.com |
Shavar Ross (born March 4, 1971) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer, editor, photographer, author, online retail entrepreneur, and spiritual mentor and teacher. He is known for his recurring television role as Dudley Johnson, Arnold Jackson's (Gary Coleman's) best friend in the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes , Weasel in the ABC sitcom Family Matters , and as "Reggie the Reckless" in the fifth installment of the Friday the 13th movie series Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985).
Ross was born in New York City in the South Bronx. His parents separated when he was seven years old. His mother took Shavar and his sister to Macon, Georgia, while his father went to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
In 1979 while visiting his father in California during his school's Christmas vacation, Shavar was discovered by top children's agent Evelyn Shultz.
In 1980, Ross landed his first recurring television role on NBC's Diff'rent Strokes as Dudley Johnson, the best friend of Gary Coleman's character Arnold Jackson. Also in 1980, Shavar appeared in the TV film Scout's Honor , also with Gary Coleman.
Two years later, Ross became a voice actor for Hanna-Barbera and voiced Our Gang kid Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas from the animated TV series version of The Little Rascals . He also appeared in season 2 of the television show Benson , episode 11 "Big Buddy" and episode 17 "Easy Kid Stuff". [1]
Ross also had a recurring role on the series Family Matters as "Weasel".
Ross has appeared in over 100 film and episodic television projects throughout his career, including such films as the fifth installment of the Friday the 13th movie series Friday the 13th: A New Beginning in 1985 as Reggie "Reggie the Reckless" Winter and as Bryant Calvin, T.C.'s (Roger E. Mosley) son (from 1986 to 1988) in the television series Magnum, P.I.
Additionally, in 1996, after completing four years of Bible School at The Ministry Training Institute, an auxiliary of Crenshaw Christian Center, Ross founded The Alive Church, a non-denominational Christian church in Los Angeles, and was its pastor for four years.
Shavar is founder and CEO of Tri-Seven Entertainment, Inc., a film, television and online retail company which produces, develops, acquires and distributes inspirational products for a global audience. [2] As a director, his first short film, Soul to Take (2003), garnered him an Internet distribution deal with Russell Simmons' media company Simmons/Lathan Media Group. His second short film, A Taste of Us (2004), dealt with the civil unrest of the 1960s segregation in the south and was originally made as a pilot presentation for the TV One Network. Lord Help Us [3] (released nationally in May 2007 through Image Entertainment), an inspirational urban romantic comedy starring American Idol‘s Nadia Turner, Oscar nominee Margaret Avery (The Color Purple), Debra Wilson (MADtv, Scary Movie 4), comedian Joe Clair (BET's Rap City, Take the Cake), Grammy-Award winning singer Al Jarreau and many others marked his feature film directorial debut.
In May 2006, Ross appeared on an E! Child Stars Special, Geeks, Freaks, and Sidekicks, where he revealed that during the taping of the very special episode of Diff'rent Strokes in which he was molested, he was going through a similar experience in real life; he was being "touched" by a family friend inappropriately while he was asleep. [4]
In 2008, he played a "prosperity preacher" on David Alan Grier's show Chocolate News on Comedy Central. In 2009, he appeared in a documentary His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th. [5]
Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress. An influential teen idol of the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was known for playing Kimberly Drummond on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986). Her personal struggles with substance abuse were well documented by the media and led to her premature death at the age of 34. Her life has retrospectively been called a "tragedy".
Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known as a high-profile child star of the late 1970s and 1980s. Born in Zion, Illinois, Coleman grew up with his adopted parents, and a kidney disease; due to the corticosteroids and other medications used to treat it, his growth was limited to 4 ft 8 in (142 cm). In the mid-1970s, he appeared in commercials and acted in an episode of Medical Center. He caught the attention of a producer after acting in a pilot for a revival of The Little Rascals (1977), who decided to cast him as Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986). The show became successful and launched Coleman into stardom. For playing the role of Arnold, he received several accolades, which include two Young Artist Awards; in 1980 for Outstanding Contribution to Youth Through Entertainment and in 1982 for Best Young Actor in a Comedy Series; and three People's Choice Awards; a consecutive three wins for Favorite Young TV Performer from 1980 to 1983; as well as nominations for two TV Land Awards.
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Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 American slasher film directed by Danny Steinmann and starring Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, and Shavar Ross. The film also features a cameo appearance from Corey Feldman, who portrayed Tommy Jarvis in the previous film. It is a sequel to Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) and the fifth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Set years after the events of the previous film, the story follows a teenage Tommy Jarvis (Shepherd), who is institutionalized at a halfway house near Crystal Lake because of nightmares of mass murderer Jason Voorhees, whom he killed as a child. Tommy must face his fears when a new hockey mask-wearing murderer initiates another violent killing spree in the area.
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The Gary Coleman Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired on NBC during the 1982–1983 season. The series featured Gary Coleman as the voice of Andy LeBeau, an apprentice angel, who was dispatched back to Earth to earn his wings by helping others.
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Le Tari was an American actor who appeared in movies and television.
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, respectively, who are two boys from Harlem taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue businessman and his daughter. Phillip Drummond is a widower for whom their deceased mother previously worked; his daughter, Kimberly, is played by Dana Plato. During the first season and the first half of the second season, Charlotte Rae also starred, as Mrs. Edna Garrett, the Drummonds' first housekeeper, who ultimately spun off into her own sitcom, The Facts of Life, as a housemother at the fictional Eastland School. The second housekeeper, Adelaide Brubaker, was played by Nedra Volz. The third housekeeper, Pearl Gallagher, was played by Mary Jo Catlett, first appearing as a recurring character, later becoming a main cast member.
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Live in Front of a Studio Audience is a series of live television specials that was first broadcast by ABC on May 22, 2019. Conceptualized and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the specials feature all-star casting for live recreations of sitcom episodes of various television shows created by companies run by the renowned producer, Norman Lear, that originally aired in the 1970s and 1980s.
"The Bicycle Man" is a two-part very special episode of the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986). Serving as the 16th and 17th episodes of the fifth season, it was written by Blake Hunter, directed by Gerren Keith, and guest-stars Gordon Jump as a bicycle shop owner who tries to molest Arnold Jackson and his friend Dudley Johnson. The episode also features Le Tari as Ted Ramsey, Dudley's adoptive father, and Brad Trumbull as Detective Simpson.
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