| Summary: | Film director and actor Bill Duke was born William Henry Hudson Duke, Jr. on February 26, 1943, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Duke began his career as an actor, initially in small theaters of New York City performing in such plays as LeRoi Jones' Slave Ship and Melvin Van Peebles' musical Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Duke's most prominent and critically acclaimed television work has been as a director of teleplays for the PBS series American Playhouse including The Killing Floor, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Meeting, a 90-minute drama that depicted an imaginary meeting between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Duke directed his first feature film in 1990, a film adaptation of Chester Himes' novel A Rage in Harlem. Duke went on to direct a number of other films including Deep Cover, Sister Act 2, Hoodlum and Deacons for Defense.
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