Earle Hyman, American actor, educator. Recipient Theatre World award, 1956; recipient Actors Studio, 1980, Gry Statuette Husmodres Teater Forening, Oslo, 1965, Obie award for Lifetime Achievement, Village Voice, 2009. Member of American Federation of television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity Association (councilor 1956-1971), Players Club (New York City).
Background
Hyman was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, of African and Native American ancestry. Hyman"s parents, Zachariah Hyman (Tuscarora) and Maria Lilly Plummer (Haliwa-Saponi/Nottoway), moved their family to Brooklyn, New York, where Hyman primarily grew up.
Education
Student, Brooklyn public schools.
Career
Hyman is known for his recurring role on ThunderCats as the voice of Panthro and later on The Cosby Show as Cliff"s father, Russell Huxtable. Earle Hyman became interested in acting after seeing a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen"s Ghosts. He made his Broadway stage debut as a teenager in 1943 in Run, Little Chillun, and later joined the American Negro Theater.
The following year, Hyman began a two-year run playing the role of Rudolf on Broadway in Anna Lucasta, starring Hilda Simms in the title role.
In December 1958 he came to London to play the leading role in the play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John, at the Royal Court. In 1959 he again appeared in the West End, this time in the first London production of A Raisin In the Sun alongside Kim Hamilton.
The show ran at the Adelphi Theatre and was directed again by Lloyd Richards. In addition to his stage work, Hyman has appeared in various television and film roles including adaptions of Macbeth (1968), Julius Caesar (1979), and Coriolanus (1979), and voiced Panthro on the animated television series ThunderCats (1985-1990).
He played two roles (at different times) on television"s The Edge of Night.
He is the first cousin once removed of singer Phyllis Hyman.
Membership
He was a member of the American Shakespeare Theatre beginning with its first season in 1955, and played the role of Othello in the 1957 season. A life member of The Actors Studio, Hyman has appeared throughout his career in productions in both the United States and Norway (he is fluent in Norwegian) where he also owns a home on Norway"s west coast and an apartment in Oslo.