Post by daxmaryrussel on Oct 3, 2006 13:15:20 GMT
Lamine (Johnny) Sekka (July 21, 1934 - September 14, 2006) was an African film and television actor. He died at his ranch in Agua Dulce, California, survived by his wife Cecilia and son Lamine.
For us science fiction fans he is most well-know for his role as Doctor Benjamin Kyle who appeared in the Babylon 5 pilot movie The Gathering. (More in:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Kyle)
"Sekka was born in Dakar in French West Africa (now Senegal), the youngest of five siblings.
Aged 20, he was a stowaway on a ship to Marseilles, and lived for three years in Paris. He arrived in the UK in 1952, and served in the RAF for two years, but then West Indian actor Earl Cameron persuaded him to become an actor, and he attended RADA. He became a stagehand at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared on stage in various plays in 1958. He had a small part in the 1958 film version of Look Back in Anger, directed by Tony Richardson, who had seen him on stage. He took a leading role in the 1961 film Flame in the Streets, playing the Jamaican boyfriend of the (white) daughter (played by Sylvia Syms) of a liberal working-class trades unionist (played by John Mills).
He continued in British films and television during the 1960s, portraying stereotypical roles, such as a butler in the film Woman of Straw. He was seen as a British equivalent to Sidney Poitier, and was frustrated that actors who started out at around the same time as him - such as Sean Connery, Terry Stamp, Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and John Hurt - had become stars, and he had not.
Sekka eventually came to America with the aim of getting better roles. He had a minor part in the films Warm December (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974), directed by Poitier, which led to a more memorable role in the sitcom Good Times, where he portrayed Ibe, Thelma's (BernNadette Stanis) African love interest. In 1976, he starred in the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God (aka The Message) about the origin of Islam and the message of prophet Mohammad, in which he played the prophet's Ethiopian disciple Bilal. He was not cast in Roots (1977), being considered insufficiently American, but secured a role in the sequel, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), playing an African interpreter. Sekka is widely known among science fiction fans for his role as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the television series Babylon 5's pilot movie, The Gathering (1993).
Recurring health problems forced him to decline a future role in the series and retire from acting altogether. He died at his ranch in Agua Dulce, California, survived by his wife Cecilia and son Lamine."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Sekka
For us science fiction fans he is most well-know for his role as Doctor Benjamin Kyle who appeared in the Babylon 5 pilot movie The Gathering. (More in:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Kyle)
"Sekka was born in Dakar in French West Africa (now Senegal), the youngest of five siblings.
Aged 20, he was a stowaway on a ship to Marseilles, and lived for three years in Paris. He arrived in the UK in 1952, and served in the RAF for two years, but then West Indian actor Earl Cameron persuaded him to become an actor, and he attended RADA. He became a stagehand at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared on stage in various plays in 1958. He had a small part in the 1958 film version of Look Back in Anger, directed by Tony Richardson, who had seen him on stage. He took a leading role in the 1961 film Flame in the Streets, playing the Jamaican boyfriend of the (white) daughter (played by Sylvia Syms) of a liberal working-class trades unionist (played by John Mills).
He continued in British films and television during the 1960s, portraying stereotypical roles, such as a butler in the film Woman of Straw. He was seen as a British equivalent to Sidney Poitier, and was frustrated that actors who started out at around the same time as him - such as Sean Connery, Terry Stamp, Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and John Hurt - had become stars, and he had not.
Sekka eventually came to America with the aim of getting better roles. He had a minor part in the films Warm December (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974), directed by Poitier, which led to a more memorable role in the sitcom Good Times, where he portrayed Ibe, Thelma's (BernNadette Stanis) African love interest. In 1976, he starred in the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God (aka The Message) about the origin of Islam and the message of prophet Mohammad, in which he played the prophet's Ethiopian disciple Bilal. He was not cast in Roots (1977), being considered insufficiently American, but secured a role in the sequel, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), playing an African interpreter. Sekka is widely known among science fiction fans for his role as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the television series Babylon 5's pilot movie, The Gathering (1993).
Recurring health problems forced him to decline a future role in the series and retire from acting altogether. He died at his ranch in Agua Dulce, California, survived by his wife Cecilia and son Lamine."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Sekka