Background
Vantile Emmanuel Whitfield was born on September 8, 1930, in Washington, District of Columbia, the only child of Theodore Roosevelt Whitfield (1902–1971) and Lugene Ellen Green.
Vantile Emmanuel Whitfield was born on September 8, 1930, in Washington, District of Columbia, the only child of Theodore Roosevelt Whitfield (1902–1971) and Lugene Ellen Green.
Whitfield studied theatre at Howard University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957.
While a student at Dunbar High School, he played football and became interested in painting. After high school, he served in the Air Force until 1952. After graduation he enrolled in the master’s degree program at the University of California, Los Angeles Film School, becoming one of the first African Americans to study there.
In 1963, Whitfield co-founded with actor Frank Silvera the American Theatre of Being in Los Los Angeles
While there he taught acting classes with Beah Richards, Whitman Mayo and Isabel Sanford. Also in 1963, Whitfield designed the sets, lights and costumes for Silvera"s production of the James Baldwin play The Amen Corner, becoming the first African-American production designer to work on Broadway.
The following year, Whitfield founded and served as producing artistic director of the Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles (PASLA). The goal of PASLA was to help train inner-city youth in the performing arts
Black Repertory Company.
In 1971, Whitfield was the founding director of the Expansion Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts (National Education Association). In this role, he had perhaps his greatest influence, because this program provided funds for many African-American artists and arts organizations. Although his tenure at University of California, Los Angeles Film School pre-dates the period generally associated with the Los Angeles Rebellion, Whitfield had a connection with several filmmakers associated with the film movement.
Larry Clark taught film production classes at PASLA while a student at University of California, Los Angeles and directed the short film As Above, So Below (1973) through the organization.
Whitfield also acted in Haile Gerima"s film Ashes and Embers. Whitfield died from complications of Alzheimer"s Disease on January 9, 2005.
1969: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Award.