Brock Peters

Brock Peters (July 2, 1927 – August 23, 2005) was an American actor, perhaps best known for the role in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird of Tom Robinson, the black man unjustly convicted of raping a white girl. Peters was born George Fisher in New York City, the son of Alma A. (née Norford) and Sonnie Fisher, a sailor.^[1] He was of African and West Indian descent. Peters set his sights on a show business career early on, at age ten. A product of NYC's famed Music and Arts High School, Peters initially fielded more odd jobs than acting jobs as he worked his way up from Harlem poverty. Landing a stage role in Porgy and Bess in 1949, he quit physical education studies at City College of New York and went on tour with the acclaimed musical. His film debut came in Carmen Jones in 1954, but he really began to make a name for himself in such films as To Kill a Mockingbird and The L-Shaped Room. He received a Tony nomination for his starring stint in Broadway's Lost in the Stars. In radio, Peters was the voice of Darth Vader for the National Public Radio adaptation of the Star Wars Original Trilogy. Peters worked with Charlton Heston on several theater productions in the 1940s and 1950s. The two befriended each other and subsequently worked together on several films, including Major Dundee, Soylent Green, and Two-Minute Warning. He died in Los Angeles, California of pancreatic cancer on August 23, 2005 at the age of 78. He has a daughter called Lise Jo Peters.

Notable Performances

• Sergeant Brown in Carmen Jones (1954 film version)
• Crown in Porgy and Bess (1959 film version)
• Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Aesop in Major Dundee (1965)
• Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars (stage version and 1974 film version) — nominated for a Tony Award
• Lieutenant Hatcher in the film Soylent Green
• Darth Vader in the Star Wars radio series
• The Ogre in the Faerie Tale Theatre episode Puss in Boots.
• Det. Frank Lewis in The Young and the Restless
• Fleet Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• Lucius Fox in Batman: The Animated Series
• Joseph Sisko, Benjamin Sisko's father, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Dark Kat in SWAT Kats The Radical Squadron, Bloth in Pirates of Dark Water, Tormack in Galtar and the Golden Lance and Boneyard in Gravedale High.
• An uncredited voice-acting performance as the boxer Jack Johnson on the Miles Davis album A Tribute to Jack Johnson.

Deep Space Nine appearances

• "Homefront"
• "Paradise Lost"
• "A Time to Stand"
• "Far Beyond the Stars"
• "Image in the Sand"
• "Shadows and Symbols"

References

External links

• Brock Peters at the Internet Movie Database
• Brock Peters article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki