Robert Townsend is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is often referred to as one of the "Godfathers" of the Independent Film World.
Background
One of four children of Robert and Shirley (Jenkins) Townsend, Robert Townsend was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, on February 6, 1957. Not long after, Townsend’s father, a construction worker, divorced his mother. With the help of her own mother, she raised the children on her own, working at the post office to support the family. Eager to protect her children from the violence that surrounded them, she kept Townsend and his siblings in their apartment as much as possible. Townsend often mimicked what he heard on different TV programs; he also performed accomplished imitations of popular actors, to his friends’ amusement. At the time, his only goal was to play basketball—he’s a little over six feet tall. But his skills seemed to lie elsewhere, and he remembers spending a lot of time on the bench, cheered by the fact that even if he wasn’t on the court, his friends found him very funny. Townsend’s mother offered great support, reassuring her children that they were capable of anything.
Education
Townsend was educated at Austin High School, graduating in 1975. For his mother's sake, Townsend went to Illinois State University in Normal, majoring in communications. After he transferred to William Paterson College of New Jersey (now William Paterson University), Townsend spent much of his time shuttling to New York City. His training included a course with well-respected acting teacher Stella Adler, as well as performances in Negro Ensemble Company productions. His final transfer was to Hunter College of the City of New York, but he soon quit school to focus on his stand-up and improvisational work.
By sixteen, Townsend started to perform with the Experimental Black Actors Guild, now known as the Chicago Theater Company, an experience he credited with teaching him about acting and directing. Townsend began to appear at Punchinello’s, a Chicago comedy club; his act was composed of a wide range of celebrity impressions, including Edward G. Robinson and Bill Cosby. He began to establish himself in the entertainment business, appearing in commercials and, in 1975, in his first film, Cooley High. The actor intended to join Second City, comedy workshop for improvisation, professionally as soon as he was graduated from high school.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Townsend had parts in several made-for-television films, including Women at West Point, Senior Trip, and In Love with an Older Woman. He also had a small part in Paul Mazursky’s feature film Willie and Phil. Townsend became friendly with comedian Eddie Murphy around this time, and both of them auditioned for an opening on Saturday Night Live; Murphy was hired for the weekly comedy show and Townsend was not, but they remained friendly, working together a few years later.
Townsend soon settled on the West Coast, where he landed a small part in Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire in 1984. Later that year he made a more significant appearance in A Soldier’s Story, Norman Jewison’s tale of a murder investigation at an all-black army base in Louisiana during World War II. During the time he wasn’t on camera, Townsend assisted cinematographer Russell Voight, an opportunity he later described as extremely instructive for his own filmmaking.
Teaming up with his friend Keenen Ivory Wayans (later the executive producer and star of the popular comedy series In Living Color), he made several short films. The first of these, Sam Ace, was shot in 1984. This black-and-white send-up of film noir detectives such as Sam Spade and Mike Hammer showcased the writing talents of Townsend and Wayans, as well as their actor friends, many of whom had found the same lack of variety in the film roles they were offered. Over the next two and a half years, Townsend completed several other short parodies which he ultimately combined, along with new material, into his first feature, Hollywood Shuffle, released in 1987.
During this time, Townsend paid his bills with minor roles in Odd Jobs, directed by Mark Story, John Badham’s American Flyers, and Ratboy, directed by Sondra Locke. He sunk sixty thousand dollars he had managed to save into his own project, shooting a few days at a time whenever he could. With no film permits, Townsend and his cast had to rely on one take for each scene—just enough time before the police showed up. The actors rehearsed exhaustively, not only to keep shooting time down but to save on film. In a canny move, Townsend convinced the directors with whom he worked at this time to give him any leftover film stock from their better-financed projects. Even with these frugalities, Townsend came up about forty thousand dollars short.
Bobby Taylor, the hero of Hollywood Shuffle played by Townsend, is a young actor looking for a break. Supporting himself with work at the Winky Dinky Dog, he auditions for a series of stereotypical black roles. Townsend took a little heat for satire that some critics perceived as homophobic, especially in the character of a prissy hairdresser who can’t stop blowing kisses. The film was a hit with audiences, easily recouping Townsend’s initial 100,000 dollar investment—it grossed more than ten million dollars. Basking in his success, Townsend had no illusions that his film had removed barriers for black actors, but it was a step.
After he saw Hollywood Shuffle, Eddie Murphy chose Townsend to direct his concert film Eddie Murphy Raw.
In 1987 Townsend made the first of several comedy specials for Home Box Office (HBO), “Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime". Reuniting many of the actors from Hollywood Shuffle, Townsend presented a series of parodies and sketches. He followed this with “Take No Prisoners: Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime II”.
The following year Townsend returned to films, appearing in That’s Adequate, director Harry Hurwitz’s effort that met with disappointing reviews. He met with more success as the supporting actor to Denzel Washington’s star role in The Mighty Quinn. Playing the prime suspect in a murder investigation headed by Washington, Townsend caught New York critic David Denby’s attention: “Playing a local legend—a great lover and free spirit—Townsend exudes a physical pleasure in his rascally role.”
Teaming up once again with Wayans, Townsend co-scripted The Five Heartbeats, the first project of his own production company, Tinsel Townsend. Inspired by the R&B groups of the 1960s such as the Temptations and the Four Tops, the film is a biography of a fictional band whose success is leavened with personal problems and setbacks. The film met with mixed reviews.
One of the sequences of Hollywood Shuffle featured a black superhero, an idea Townsend returned to in his 1993 release, The Meteor Man. Starring in the film, he played a teacher and struggling musician who lives in a drug-ridden Washington neighborhood. Although they acknowledged Townsend’s good intentions, several critics expressed their disappointment with the film.
Capitalizing on the success of his several “Partners in Crime” comedy specials, Townsend hosted Townsend Television, beginning in fall of 1993. The show found little favor with the critics.
Townsend tried another television project in 1995, this time a series titled The Parent ’Hood. Co-creator and co-producer Townsend stars as a communications professor whose law-student wife and four children keep him on the alert. The critics were not especially impressed, though several commended its efforts to show a middle-class black family.
In 1997 Townsend returned to film directing with comedy film B.A.P.S., a fairy tale of two black American princesses who leave their native Decatur, Georgia, to audition for a rap video in Los Angeles. Townsend also created and starred in the WB Network's (Warner Bros.) sitcom The Parent 'Hood with originally ran from January 1995 to July 1999.
Townsend directed the 2001 TV movie, Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story. He also became a director of two television movies in 2001 and 2002 respectively, Carmen: A Hip Hopera and 10,000 Black Men Named George.
Townsend was a programming director at the Black Family Channel, but the network folded in 2007. He established The Robert Townsend Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to introduce and to help new unsigned filmmakers. As a Hollywood Icon and humanitarian, Townsend's mission is to create quality programming for everyone to enjoy and to create a classic body of work that would be timeless.
With over thirty years in the business, Townsend has made an indelible mark in Hollywood with an extensive list of credits.
He received the Image Award at the best television variety nomination, from National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in 1988, for “Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime”, HBO Comedy Hour. A year later, Townsend and filmmaker Spike Lee were honorees of the Black Filmmaker’s Foundation at a gala to commemorate the group’s tenth anniversary.
In addition, Townsend was nominated for over 30 NAACP Image Awards for film and television. He won the Cinematheque Award – from California State University Northridge in 2008. That same year, he earned the Independent Spirit Award at Roxbury Film Festival. In 2011 he was inducted into the American Black Film Festival Hall of Fame. In 2013 Townsend was nominated for an Ovation Award in the category of "Lead Actor in a Musical".
As a director, actor, writer, and producer, Townsend has sought to expand the panorama of options for black characters, using his work to show that skin color is the least descriptive aspect of character, that only by eroding the standard categories will all actors have the same choices, regardless of ethnic background.
What he began in his satirical comedy film Hollywood Shuffle remains Townsend’s emphasis: to dislodge the casting habits and prejudices that keep black actors in stock roles. Throughout his career, he has never forgotten the power of movies and television to influence people, to send messages about what matters.
Quotations:
"I don’t think it’s just enough to entertain people. I mean, there’s a side of me that’s a comedian, there’s a side of me that’s very serious in terms of black people ... People need inspiration, especially black people."
"Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise."
"A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart."
"Many ideas are good for a limited time - not forever."
"The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain."
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Townsend is 1.8 m tall.
Connections
Townsend married Cherri Jones in 1990. The couple has four children - Skye, Sierra, Isaiah and Grace.
Father:
Robert Townsend
His father was a construction worker.
Mother:
Shirley (Jenkins) Townsend
Townsend acknowledged that his mother had been a hero to him: “She told us we could do anything we wanted, we just had to work at it”.
child:
Skye Townsend
She is an American actress, R&B-soul and pop singer.
