Lonette McKee

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Lonette McKee (* 22. July 1954 in Detroit ) is an American actress and R & B - singer-songwriter .

Live and act

Lonette McKee, the second daughter of Lonnie McKee, a bricklayer and car factory worker, and his wife Dorothy McKee, has two sisters: the older is the actress and dancer Kathrine McKee , the younger is Carol. Since her father was black and her mother was white , Lonette McKee was confronted with racial reservations early on . She began her musical education as a child, played the piano, sang and wrote songs. She performed in the greater Detroit area at the age of seven or eight . In the late 1960s she released several singles, produced by Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore , and the 14-year-old hit a regional hit with Stop Don't Worry . She left Saint Martin de Porres High School after ninth grade and moved to Los Angeles when she was 15 , where she lived with her sister Kathrine. There she also recorded her first album Lonette , which she again realized with Coffex and Theodore; it was released in 1974 by Sussex Record, the label of Clarence Avant (* 1931). With Save It Do not Give It Away , the first coupled-out single off the album, she performed in vaudeville show Soul Train by Don Cornelius on. In 1972 she sang as one of the Soul Sisters on Jonathan Winters ' weekly TV show The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters .

In 1978 her second R&B / Pop album, Words And Music, was released on Warner Bros. Records , for which she wrote all the songs herself. However, it was not a commercial success.

McKee then gained greater fame than with her music through her appearances in film and television. Her acting career began in 1976 with a starring role in Sparkle , a musical drama from Warner Bros. Pictures , in which Sam O'Steen directed by. In the tragic role of the drug addict sister McKee had extensive dancing and singing scenes based on the music of Curtis Mayfield . For the soundtrack to the film, however, the songs were re-recorded with Aretha Franklin . Since then, McKee has appeared regularly in American films, some with vocals, such as in Cotton Club , where she performed the song Ill Wind . Several times they played in films by Spike Lee , for example, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X . She has also had guest roles in various TV series.

People magazine named McKee in 1995 as "The 50 Most Beautiful People", the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

In 1998 and 1999, McKee was nominated for an Image Award for her acting performance in As the World Turns and To Dance with Olivia . In 2003 she was nominated for the Black Reel Award in the category Best Supporting Actress for her appearance in the film Lift .

In addition to her film career, she occasionally took on theater roles. So she made her debut in 1981 in the musical The First . She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1983 and a Drama Desk Award in 1995 for her portrayal in Show Boat . In 1986 she played Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill .

From 1983 to 1990 McKee was married to Leo Compton, an advisor to the New York City Youth Bureau, whom she met on her Show Boat tour in San Francisco, where he was a part-time bouncer.

In 1992 McKee released her third album Natural Love on Spike Lee's label 40 Acres And A Mule . Recorded in New York and Woodland Hills , it features R&B, pop, rock, and hip-hop music. Seven songs are by McKee, three by her partner Bryant McNeil.

In 2010 McKee, who studied film directing at the New School in New York , produced the drama Dream Street . She also directed, wrote the script and composed the music for it.

Discography

Albums

  • 1974: Lonette (Sussex Records)
  • 1978: Words And Music ( Warner Bros. Records )
  • 1992: Natural Love (40 Acres And A Mule)

Singles

  • 1967: Mind Intruder / Stop! (Don't Worry About It) (Dearborn)
  • 1968: Veil Of Mystery / Stop! (Don't Worry About It) (MS Records)
  • 1969: Blue Jeans / True Love Didn't Stay (MS Records)
  • 1974: Save It (Don't Give It Away) / Do To Me (Sussex Records)
  • 1975: I'm Alone (Sussex Records)
  • 1978: Color (Of The Love Of My Love) (Warner Bros. Records)
  • 2003: with Ric Martin and Justin Jones : Do To Me / I Traveled The Road / Dance By Yourself

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • McKee, Lonette In: S. Torriano Berry, Venise T. Berry: Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-4701-7 , p. 295.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Lonette McKee Biography filmreference.com, accessed January 9, 2013
  2. ^ A b Lonette McKee - Words and Music allemovie.com, accessed January 9, 2013
  3. ^ A b E. R. Shipp: Lonette McKee on Becoming Lady Day. In: The New York Times . February 22, 1987. Retrieved January 9, 2013
  4. ^ John Stark: After Singing Her Own Blues, Lonette Mckee Finds a Perch as Off Broadway's Billie Holiday. In: People . November 3, 1986, accessed January 10, 2013
  5. ^ Q&A: The Legendary Lonette McKee soultrain.com, accessed January 9, 2013
  6. ↑ Steve Holsey: Spotlight: Lonette McKee.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Michigan Chronicle. February 8, 2012, accessed January 10, 2013@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / 87.f5.7bae.static.theplanet.com  
  7. ↑ Beautiful Through the Years people.com, accessed January 10, 2013
  8. ↑ Lonette McKee allemovie.com, accessed January 9, 2013
  9. ↑ Lonette McKee, performer ibdb.com, accessed January 9, 2013
  10. ↑ Lonette McKee - Natural Love . In: The Baltimore Afro American. December 5, 1992, accessed January 9, 2013
  11. ↑ McKee, Lonette (1954-) . In: Contemporary Black Biography , 2005
personal data
SURNAME McKee, Lonette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McKee, Lonett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and singer-songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit