Biography for
Godfrey Cambridge More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 February 1933, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

29 November 1976, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge

Mini Biography

Cambridge won a four year scholarship to study medicine but decided instead to become an actor, leaving college in his third year. He acted in many off-Broadway productions, winning the Village Voice's Obie Award in Jean Genet's The Blacks; and on Broadway he gained a Tony Award Nomination in Purlie's Victorious. It was as a comedian that he broke into television, initially in the Jack Paar Show. Having previously had occasional parts, he established himself in films in the late sixties. He played both comic and straight roles but is likely remembered such portrayals as that of the white bigot who wakes up one morning to find himself turned black in _Watermelon Man, The (1970)_. His compulsive eating probably contributed to his untimely death at 43 on the set of the television film Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV) in which he was to have played General Idi Amin.

IMDb Mini Biography By:

Spouse

Barbara Ann Teer	(August 1962 - ?) (divorced)
Audriano Meyers	(? - 29 November 1976) (his death) 2 children

Trivia

Died of heart attack on set of TV movie Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV), where he was set to play Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Amin claimed Cambridge's death was "punishment from God."

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 86-87. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Was nominated for Broadway's 1962 Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for "Purlie Victorious," a role he recreated in the film version titled Gone Are the Days! (1963).

Was originally set to star in "The Partners" (1971) but left during filming of the pilot because he did not get along with Don Adams.

Personal Quotes

[on why he left "The Partners" (1971)] On the set, Don Adams turns into Captain Queeg. He doesn't have those steel balls, but he drove me crazy. Now he's saying, 'The chemistry wasn't right.' Don is so uptight. Finally you have to say to him, 'Hey, man, the price ain't right. I'm willing to get off. I still have the original lining of my stomach. You can't buy a stomach for $25,000. I'll get out while I still have my own'. If you tried to find out who in this industry hates Don Adams the most, the line would run all the way to Phoenix.

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z