Filmmaker, author, and actor Melvin Van Peebles was born on August 21, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up during World War II, he spent his adolescence with his father, a tailor. Van Peebles graduated from Township High School in Phoenix, Illinois, in 1949 and spent a year at West Virginia State College before transferring to Ohio Wesleyan University where he earned his B.A. degree in English literature in 1953. During the late 1950s, Van Peebles served three and a half years as a flight navigator in the United States Air Force. After the military, he lived briefly in Mexico and San Francisco where he wrote his first book,  The Big Heart , which was about the life of San Francisco’s cable cars and their drivers. Moving to the Netherlands, he studied at the Dutch National Theatre before moving to France in the early 1960s. During this time, Van Peebles wrote several published novels in French, including  La Permission  in 1967. He filmed this story under the title,  The

Born in  Compton, California , his father was a stuntman and a founder of the  Black Stuntmen's Association . Johnson began acting in his early twenties. In 1990 he landed a starring role as E.Z.E. in  House Party , after which he started doing  stand-up  in bars in  Los Angeles . He later appeared in  Lethal Weapon 3  as a drug dealer and in  Menace II Society . His biggest role was in the 1995 comedy  Friday , as Ezal, a crackhead and thief. He has also appeared in  Panther ,  The Players Club ,  B*A*P*S ,  I Got The Hook Up , [ Def Jam's How to Be a Player  and  Repos , and in rap videos: in Dr. Dre's " Dre Day " (1992), he played Sleazy-E, a parody of  Eazy-E , and he appeared again as Sleazy-E in the video for Eazy-E's " Real Muthaphuckkin G's " (1993), this time being assaulted.

Michael Kenneth Williams  (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He played  Omar Little  on the  HBO  drama series  The Wire [1] [2] [3]  and Albert "Chalky" White on the HBO series  Boardwalk Empire . He was also acclaimed for his role as Jack Gee, husband of  Bessie Smith , in the HBO  telefilm   biopic   Bessie . He acted in supporting roles in a number of films and television series, including  The Road ,  Inherent Vice ,  The Night Of ,  Gone Baby Gone ,  12 Years a Slave ,  When We Rise ,  When They See Us , and  Hap and Leonard