Ward, Douglas Turner,
1930-2021, African-American actor, director, and
playwright, b. Burnside, La., as Roosevelt Ward Jr. Ward’s family
moved to New Orleans when he was 8 years old, where he attended Xavier
Preparatory School. In 1946, he enrolled at Wilberforce University (Oh.),
subsequently transferring to the Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He left
college at age 19 to travel to New York City to pursue an interest in
theater and progressive politics. He was arrested for draft evasion shortly
after his arrival, and jailed in his native New Orleans until the charges
were overturned on appeal. On return to New York, he began writing for the
leftist newspaper, The Daily Worker. While studying at the
Actors Studio, he
changed his named to Douglas Turner Ward (for Frederick Douglass and Nat
Turner). His first major roles were in The Iceman Cometh
(1956) and as an understudy in A Raisin in the Sun
(1959) on Broadway. In 1965, he had two one-act plays produced off-Broadway.
The following year he wrote an essay decrying the lack of theater companies
devoted to Black actors; this led the Ford Foundation to fund the Negro
Ensemble Company in 1967, with Ward serving as its artistic director. The
company mounted several successful productions, including The River
Niger (1972; Tony Award, Best Play, and Best Supporting Actor
for Ward, 1974) and A Soldier’s Play (1981; Pulitzer
Prize). It also gave many young Black actors their first major exposure on
stage, including Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, and Phylicia Rashad.
Their 1975 production of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men was
broadcast on national television, a first for a Black theater ensemble.
Ward’s last work was a trilogy of plays depicting events centered on
the slave rebellion in Haiti in the early 1800s titled The Haitian
Chronicles (2020). Ward was elected to the American Theater
Hall of Fame in 1969.
See interviews by P.C. Harrison, G. Edwards (2004).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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