Ji-Tu Cumbuka

Ji-Tu Cumbuka (March 4, 1940 – July 4, 2017) was an American stage, film, and television actor. In 2011, Cumbuka published his autobiography A Giant to Remember: The Black Actor in Hollywood. He has a son, Ji-Tu Cumbuka II, and a granddaughter, Leia Holifield. 2Early life Born in 1940 in Helena, Alabama, to a Baptist minister who believed acting was "the devil's work", he left home and moved to New York. After several difficult years, he enlisted in the Army, where he played football and ran track. He made All-Army in both sports. He was offered many college scholarships, but chose to attend Texas Southern University. After Texas Southern, he moved to California to pursue his acting career, and later continued his education at Columbia College in New York City, earning a bachelor of arts in theatre and a master's degree in cinematography. After three years of attending acting classes and acting in community plays and workshops, he landed a role in the 1968 movie Uptight directed by Jules Dassin. 2Acting career Cumbuka appeared in such television productions as the Roots miniseries, Daniel Boone, Young Dan'l Boone, Knots Landing, The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, Walker, Texas Ranger, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sanford and Son, and In the Heat of the Nigh