Biography
Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer and composer. Born in Chicago in 1932, he worked in a range of jobs before moving into film. His early feature The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967) was made in France. He followed it with the studio film Watermelon Man (1970).
In 1971 Van Peebles wrote, directed, produced, edited, composed the score for and starred in the independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The low-budget production, partly financed by a loan from Bill Cosby, became a commercial success and is credited with helping launch the blaxploitation genre. He continued to work in film, theatre and music, and his son Mario Van Peebles later portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss!.
