Johnny Sekka

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Johnny Sekka (born July 14, 1934 in Dakar , † September 14, 2006 in Agua Dulce , California ) was a British film and television actor .

life and career

Sekka was born as Lamine Sekka in Dakar, Senegal , the youngest of five siblings. His father, who was from Gambia , died shortly after Sekka was born. Sekka grew up with an aunt in Georgetown, now Janjanbureh , in The Gambia, but he ran away and lived on the streets of the capital Banjul , then Bathurst. During the Second World War he worked as a translator on a US military airfield in Dakar.

He later worked on the docks in the port of Dakar. At the age of 20 he came to Marseille as a stowaway on a ship and lived in Paris for three years . He came to the UK in 1952 and served two years in the Royal Air Force until actor Earl Cameron persuaded him to become an actor. Then Sekka attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . He became a stagehand at the Royal Court Theater and appeared in films from 1958. He had a small role in the 1958 film adaptation of the play Look Back in Anger , directed by Tony Richardson , who had already seen him on stage. In 1961, Sekka had a leading role in the film Flame in the Streets , in which he played the Jamaican boyfriend of the white daughter (played by Sylvia Syms ) of a unionist (played by John Mills ). Sekka lived again for some time in Paris, where he met his future wife Cecilia Enger .

He continued to appear in British films during the 1960s, where he played stereotypical roles such as The Butler in The Straw Doll (1964) and in other films such as East of Sudan (1964), Khartoum (1966) and The Last Safari (1967) ). He also appeared in television roles, in television series such as Z-Cars , Dixon of Dock Green , Gideon's Way and in 1968 in an episode of Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone . In 1968 he played the lead role in a West End production of the play Bakke's Night of Fame by John McGrath . Sekka's obituary in The Times noted that this was the first time a black actor played a role on an English theater stage that was not specifically written for a black actor. Seen as the British equivalent of Sidney Poitier , Sekka was frustrated that actors starting out at the same time as him became stars like Sean Connery , Terence Stamp , Michael Caine , Tom Courtenay and John Hurt , and he didn't.

Sekka moved to the US with the aim of getting better roles. He had minor roles in the 1972 films A Warm December and 1974 Saturday Night Up in Town ; Poitier directed both films. Earl Cameron played in the first film, and Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor in the second . Those roles led to a more memorable role on the sitcom Good Times , where he played Ibe, Thelma's ( Bern-Nadette Stanis ) African friend . In 1976 he starred in the film Mohammed - The Messenger of God , also known as The Message , about the origins of Islam and the message of Mohammed , in which he played Mohammed's Ethiopian follower Bilal al-Habaschi . Sekka appeared in the comedy Der Geisterflieger in 1982 .

In 1977 he was not cast in Roots because he was not considered American enough, but in 1979 he played in the sequel Roots: The Next Generations , where he played an African translator. Sekka is popular among science fiction fans for his role as Dr. Benjamin Kyle is known in the 1993 television series Babylon 5's pilot , The Gathering . Recurring health problems forced him to refuse any further participation in the series.

death

Eventually, his health forced him to retire from acting entirely. He died of lung cancer at his ranch in Agua Dulce, California, at the age of 72 . His wife Cecilia and their son survived him.

Filmography

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sekka, Johnny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sekka, Lamine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Dakar
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 2006
Place of death Agua Dulce , California