Harold Dewindt

Harold “Hal” DeWindt was an American producer, director, actor, and model. He worked to increase opportunities for African Americans in the arts.

DeWindt was born and raised in Harlem. His father Clifford acted with the original Lafayette Theatre.

In 1959, DeWindt became the first male model for the Ebony Fashion Fair. He traveled with that fashion troupe for two years.

DeWindt began his stage career in the Broadway play Golden Boy. He played a leading role in the Louis S. Peterson play Entertain A Ghost. He also appeared in the Kurt Weill musical Lost in the Stars. In 1962, DeWindt staged an Off-Broadway production of Raisin’ Hell in the Son, a spoof of A Raisin in the Sun that he co-wrote with Reni Santoni.

DeWindt served as production stage manager at the New York Shakespeare Festival for seven years. He was a director with Robert Hooks’s Group Theater Workshop, which led to the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company, which he served with as a workshop director. DeWindt was the founder and artistic director of the American Theatre of Harlem, and artistic director of the Inner City Repertory Company in Los Angeles. In 1977, he formed the Hal DeWindt Theatre in San Francisco.

DeWindt died of cancer in Los Angeles on June 22, 1997. The New York Times reported his age at death as 63. – Wikipedia