Who is Mario Van Peebles? All You Need to Know About Melvin Van Peebles’s Son Mario
3 min read
The sudden death of Melvin Van Peebles has left the whole world in shock. Fans of the late actor, director, producer, and writer paid tribute to him along with Hollywood.
Who is Mario Van Peebles?
Mario Van Peebles is a famous actor, director, writer, and producer in America. On January 15, 1957, Mario Van Peebles was born in Mexico. His father-Melvin Van Peebles is a well-known actor and director and his mother is Maria Marx who is a photographer and an actress.
Mario attended Saint Thomas More School for his school education. After completing, he went to Columbia University for higher studies. He has worked very hard to take his place in the industry on his own despite being the son of legendary ‘Blaxpoitaion’ director Melvin Van Peebles.
What does Mario Van Peebles do?
In 1968, he made his debut in acting through a soap opera- One Life to Live. Later, he appeared in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassssss. In this movie, he played the role of his younger father as his father was playing the lead role in this. This movie became a super hit and people appreciated his role. This was a phenomenal movie as it showed the industry that a Black audience is very powerful. This led to the creation of Blaxploitation. In the same year, Mario also appeared in another movie named Crosscurrent.
Mario appeared in The Sophisticated Gents in 1981 and then in Exterminator 2 in 1984. In this movie, producers didn’t like this and demanded re-shooting. But at that time, the main protagonist was not available and thus, Mario’s character became more important. After this, he appeared in many movies and shows.
He started his career in directing as well. He directed several movies and shows such as Sonny Spoon, Top of the Hill, Malcolm takes a shot, and many others. People started to recognize him as an accomplished director very soon. His short film “Roots” was highly appreciated for his directing skills.
He got several awards in his career. He was honored with NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Acor in Motion Picture. In 2005, his name got nominated for Best Actor in Black Reel Awards. Thus, he is an outstanding actor and director.
How did Melvin Van Peebles died?
Melvin Van Peebles who people considered the Godfather of Black Industry died at the age of 89 this Tuesday night. He passed away when he was in his house in Manhattan. His family announced this unfortunate news of his sudden demise.
The Criterion Collection wrote in its statement- “In an unparalleled career distinguished by relentless innovation, boundless curiosity and spiritual empathy, Melvin Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape through his films, novels, plays and music,” Adding to this, the statement read, “His work continues to be essential and is being celebrated at the New York Film Festival this weekend with a 50th-anniversary screening of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Fans paid Tribute
After listening to this unfortunate news, the fans and several celebrities gave tribute to their favorite actor and director. The celebrities including Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, Franklin Leonard, and many others took to Twitter to pay their last tribute. Loni Love tweeted, “An Icon is gone.”
Actor Saul Rubinek, Director Matthew A. Cherry, and David Alan Grier also showed their respect toward the late actor. You can see their tweets written below. We have lost one of the most talented and influential artists. May his soul rest in peace!
Pallavi Dixit
I am Pallavi Dixit from Kaithal, Haryana. I have completed my schooling from DPS Kaithal and am now pursuing BA (Hons) in Political Science from SGTB Khalsa College
