17 Facts About Hal DeWindt

Harold "Hal" DeWindt was an American producer, director, actor, and model.

Hal DeWindt worked to increase opportunities for African Americans in the arts.

In 1959, DeWindt became the first male model for the Ebony Fashion Fair.

Hal DeWindt traveled with that fashion troupe for two years.

Hal DeWindt began his stage career in the Broadway play Golden Boy.

Hal DeWindt played a leading role in the Louis S Peterson play Entertain A Ghost.

Hal DeWindt appeared in the Kurt Weill musical Lost in the Stars.

In 1962, Hal DeWindt staged an Off-Broadway production of Raisin' Hell in the Son, a spoof of A Raisin in the Sun that he co-wrote with Reni Santoni.

Hal DeWindt served as production stage manager at the New York Shakespeare Festival for seven years.

Hal DeWindt was a director with Robert Hooks's Group Theater Workshop, which led to the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company, which he served with as a workshop director.

Hal DeWindt was the founder and artistic director of the American Theatre of Harlem, and artistic director of the Inner City Repertory Company in Los Angeles.

Hal DeWindt helped Arthur Mitchell bring the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Broadway, and helped Leonard Bernstein bring black musicians into the New York Philharmonic.

In 1969, as assistant producer of The Angel Levine, Hal DeWindt helped run a black apprenticeship program funded by a Ford Foundation grant.

Hal DeWindt worked on a number of other film and television productions, and led acting workshops.

Hal DeWindt was serving as an acting professor at Loyola Marymount University at the time of his death.

In 1975, Hal DeWindt met actress Sheila Wills when she enrolled in an actor's workshop he was teaching in Los Angeles.

Hal DeWindt died of cancer in Los Angeles on June 22,1997.