Jeff Coopwood | |
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| Born | June 29, 1958 |
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| Years active | 1977–present |
Jeff Coopwood (born June 29, 1958) is an American actor, [1] singer, broadcaster and educator. [2]
Jeff Coopwood | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | June 29, 1958 |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1977–present |
Jeff Coopwood (born June 29, 1958) is an American actor, [1] singer, broadcaster and educator. [2]
Jeff Coopwood was born on June 29, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louise Riley and Jesse Coopwood. His mother was a former gospel radio broadcaster, and talk show hostess in markets from Chicago and Texas, to Miami, Florida. She had also been an actress, who understudied Eartha Kitt in "Mrs. Patterson" on Broadway and a model, charm school owner, and successful newspaper and magazine editor and publisher. [3] For decades, his father, Jesse Coopwood, was a legendary jazz and talk radio broadcaster in Gary, Indiana. [4]
Although born in Chicago, he grew up in Miami, Florida, where he attended Archbishop Curley High School [5] and graduated from Miami High School. His senior year, he was named "Best Actor" in the state of Florida by the International Thespian Society. He was also a three-time state speech and debate champion and two-time national speech and debate finalist. [2]
Coopwood graduated from the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre. While obtaining a B.F.A., he also sang for four seasons with the Greater Miami Opera, now the Florida Grand Opera, where he performed with such international artists as Luciano Pavarotti, Jon Vickers, Cesare Siepi, James Morris, Dominic Cossa, Joanna Simon, Judith Blegen, Tatiana Troyanos, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, and Plácido Domingo, among many others. [2]
Upon graduation, he appeared across the country in the Broadway National Tour of "Timbuktu!," starring the legendary Eartha Kitt, and subsequently starred in several major stage productions in theatres throughout the United States and Canada. [1] [6] [7]
Coopwood went on to teach, coach and lecture in speech and debate at various high schools and colleges across the country, including Harvard University, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, and Emory University, as well as the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and the University of Miami. During his coaching career, his students won several regional, state and national championships in speech & debate at both the high school and college level, and he was twice named National Coach of the Year. [8]
Upon his return to Chicago, he was the Emmy-nominated, original host of the $100,000 Fortune Hunt and also hosted Know Your Heritage, both nationally syndicated television game shows, airing primarily on Chicago television station and cable superstation WGN-TV. [9]
Moving to Los Angeles, he studied broadcast journalism and television production at the University of California, Los Angeles. For several years, he was a regular host of the pledge drives for the PBS member television station in Los Angeles, KCET. [1] He also obtained a Master of Arts degree, with distinction, from the California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, California. [2] [10] As an alumnus, he has also hosted several public events for that alma mater. [11]
His work has included stage, television, film, commercials, broadcasting, and a significant body of work doing voice-overs in television and feature films. [1] He has been an Emmy nominee for his voice-over work and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. [6]
Coopwood is one of the few performers to list work on both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises among his credits. His most notable voiceover work includes voicing the role of the Borg, in the film Star Trek: First Contact . His voice was used for the film's Borg speech ending with the now iconic line, "Resistance is futile." [12] [13] His performance was digitally layered through multiple original takes to create the unique "Borg" effect. [6]
He was also the voice of Captain Panaka [14] [15] in four Star Wars videogames: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ; Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds , Star Wars: Obi-Wan and in addition to playing the role in Star Wars: Episode I: Battle for Naboo , he also voiced the game's narrator. [16]
In 2020, Coopwood released a solo vocal recording called "Jeff Coopwood on Broadway." [17]
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors—or, indeed, actors of any ethnicity—during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992. He achieved prominence for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the same name, which earned him the inaugural Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He reprised the role in a 1950 film version and won an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first Hispanic actor and the first Puerto Rican-born to win an Academy Award.
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California State University, Dominguez Hills is a public university in Carson, California. It was founded in 1960 and is part of the California State University (CSU) system.
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Meshach Taylor was an American actor, widely known for his role as Anthony Bouvier on the CBS sitcom Designing Women (1986–93), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He was also known for his portrayal of Hollywood Montrose, a flamboyant window dresser in the 1987 film Mannequin and its 1991 sequel. He played Sheldon Baylor on the CBS sitcom Dave's World (1993–97), appeared as Tony on the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill opposite Dabney Coleman, and appeared as the recurring character Alastair Wright, the social studies teacher on the Nickelodeon sitcom Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.
A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
Malcolm Gets is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Richard in the American television sitcom Caroline in the City. Gets is also a dancer, singer, composer, classically trained pianist, vocal director, and choreographer. His first solo album came out in 2009 from PS Classics.
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Chester Gregory, also known as C.H.E.S.S., is an American actor, singer and songwriter from Gary, Indiana. His breakthrough came with his portrayal of Jackie Wilson in The Jackie Wilson Story, which led to his Broadway debut as Seaweed in Hairspray. Gregory's other credits include principal roles in Tarzan, Cry-Baby, Dreamgirls and Sister Act. Gregory produced and starred in a look into the life of Jackie Wilson in The Eve of Jackie. Gregory has received numerous awards including the Joseph Jefferson and NAACP Theatre Award.
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The following events occurred in February 1926:
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