Godfrey Cambridge

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 86-87. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Died of heart attack on set of TV movie Victory at Entebbe (1976), where he was set to play Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Amin claimed Cambridge's death was "punishment from God."

Was originally set to star in The Partners (1971) but left during filming of the pilot because he did not get along with Don Adams.

He played both comic and straight roles but is likely remembered for such portrayals as that of the white bigot who wakes up one morning to find himself turned black in Watermelon Man (1970).

Was nominated for Broadway's 1962 Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for "Purlie Victorious," a role he recreated in the film version titled Gone Are the Days! (1963).

Cambridge won a four-year scholarship to study medicine but decided, instead, to become an actor, leaving college in his third year. He acted in many off-Broadway productions, winning the Village Voice's Obie Award in Jean Genet's "The Blacks"; and, on Broadway, he gained a Tony Award Nomination in "Purlie's Victorious". It was as a comedian that he broke into television, initially on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Parr (1957) (aka "The Jack Paar Show"). Having previously had occasional parts, he established himself in films in the late sixties.