Avon Long

Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30128128/avon_long_1976/|title=Avon Long: Ecstasy to Broadway|last=Rousuck|first=J. Wynn|date=December 19, 1976|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=March 31, 2019|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}} He had typhoid fever when he was 2 years old, and he later said that the disease affected his feet, giving him "the hard bone structure a dancer needs".{{cite news |last1=Peacock |first1=Ray |title=So Avon Long Is A Great Dancer? He Says It Ain't Necessarily So |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/880883893/?match=1&terms=%22Avon%20Long%22%20 |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=Bremerton Daily News Searchlight |agency=World Wide Features |date=April 23, 1942 |page=7|via = Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription }} He attended Frederick Douglass High School, where he was especially influenced by the Latin teacher and drama coach, Nellie A. Buchanan.{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-aug-23-1975-1116973/|title=Nellie Buchanan Night in DC; Avon Long Honors Former Teacher|last=Peters|first=Ida|date=August 23, 1975|work=The Baltimore Afro-American|access-date=March 31, 2019|page=14|via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-aug-26-1975-1117216/|title=Nellie Buchanan Night|last=Peters|first=Ida|date=August 26, 1975|work=The Baltimore Afro-American|access-date=March 31, 2019|page=17|via=NewspaperArchive.com}} In 1928 he learned that a deficiency of one credit was going to prevent him from graduating. Rather than return for another year for that credit, he dropped out of school.{{cite news |last1=Matthews |first1=Ralph |title=Looking at the Stars |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1041611469/?match=1&terms=%22Avon%20Long%22 |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=The Afro-American |date=September 16, 1933 |location=Maryland, Baltimore |page=18|via = Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription }} Late in the 1920s he moved from Boston to New York and began working at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem.

In 1933 Long performed in a production of Hot Chocolates, and he was featured at the Cotton Club in Harlem, singing "Brown Boy".{{cite magazine |date=May 3, 1962 |pages=60-61 |title=Avon Long, 52, keeps rollin' along like Ole Man River |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eL0DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA60&dq=%22Avon%20Long%22&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=%22Avon%20Long%22&f=true |magazine=Jet |access-date=December 26, 2024 }}

Long performed in a number of Broadway shows, including Porgy and Bess (as Sportin' Life in the 1942 revival), and Beggar's Holiday (1946).{{cite web |title=Avon Long |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/avon-long-50054 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=December 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630162226/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/avon-long-50054 |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |url-status=live}} Long and Lena Horne co-introduced the Harold Arlen–Ted Koehler composition "As Long As I Live" in Cotton Club Parade (1934) when Horne was only 16 years old.{{Citation needed |date=November 2024}} In 1946 he was featured in the East Harlem Players' production The Pied Piper of Hamelin.{{cite news |title='Pied Piper' Arriving: Avon Long and the East Harlem Players Open Show Tonight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/03/29/archives/pied-piper-arriving-avon-long-and-the-east-harlem-players-open-show.html |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=March 29, 1946 |page=29|url-access=subscription }} A review in The New York Times said that Long was "wasted" in a 1945 production of Carib Song: "A fine singer and dancer, he gets one good song — "Woman Is a Rascal" — and not a great deal more."{{cite news |last1=Nichols |first1=Lewis |title=The Play: 'Carib Song,' With Katherine Dunham and Avon Long, Makes Its Bow at the Adelphi Theatre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/09/28/archives/the-play-carib-song-with-katherine-dunham-and-avon-long-makes-its.html |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=September 28, 1945 |page=17 |url-access=subscription }}

He reprised his role of Sportin' Life in the 1951 Columbia recording of Porgy and Bess, the most complete recording of the opera issued up to that time. He also appeared with Thelma Carpenter in the 1952 revival of Shuffle Along, which was recorded by RCA Victor.

Don't Play Us Cheap opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York on May 16, 1972, and ran for 164 performances. Long, along with Thomas Anderson, Joshie Armstead, Robert Dunn, Jay Van Leer, Esther Rolle, Mabel King, George "Ooppee" McCurn, Frank Carey, Nate Barnett, and Rhetta Hughes, recreated their stage roles in the 1973 film adaptation of the musical.

Long originated the role of John in Bubbling Brown Sugar on Broadway, which opened at the August Wilson Theatre (then-ANTA Playhouse) on March 2, 1976, and closed on December 31, 1977, after 766 performances.

Long also appeared in a number of films and television shows. He performed a specialty number in Centennial Summer (1945).{{cite news |title=Screen News: Avon Long, Negro Singer, Gets Role in Film |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/10/31/archives/screen-news-avon-long-negro-singer-gets-role-in-film.html |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=October 31, 1945 |page=29|url-access=subscription }} He played the elderly Chicken George Moore in Roots: The Next Generations miniseries, and had small roles in Trading Places (1983) – memorable as Ezra, the servant to whom Ralph Bellamy gives a miserably small Christmas bonus ("maybe I'll go to the movies – by myself"), The Sting (1973) ("Flat rate!"), and Harry and Tonto (1974). He was originally cast to play George Jefferson in "All in the Family", but was replaced based on negative feedback from Carroll O'Connor.{{cite news |url=http://humormillmag.com/day-comedy-1975-jeffersons-premiered-cbs-2/ |title=On This Day in Comedy… In 1975 'The Jefferson's Premiered on CBS! |date=April 8, 2017 |access-date=June 2, 2019 |work=Humor Mill Mag |first=Darryl "D’Militant" |last=Littleton}}

At the time of his death, Long was married to the former Gretchen Cotton. They had two daughters. He died of cancer on February 15, 1984, in Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, aged 73.{{cite news |last1=Fraser |first1=C. Gerald |title=Avon Long, Actor and Singer In Theater and Film 50 Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/17/obituaries/avon-long-actor-and-singer-in-theater-and-film-50-years.html |access-date=December 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=February 17, 1984 |page=B 4 |url-access=subscription }}

{{reflist}}

• {{IBDB name|50054}}
• {{IMDb name|0518880}}

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Category:1910 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Male actors from Baltimore

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century African-American male actors

Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)