Ted Ross

Ted Ross

Born: June 30, 1934
Died: September 3, 2002
in Zanesville, Ohio, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ted Ross (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002) was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original 1975 Broadway production, and went on to recreate the role in the 1978 film version which also starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Ross went on to appear in the films Arthur and Police Academy, and on the television sitcoms The Jeffersons, Benson, The Cosby Show, and its spin-off A Different World. His final role was in the 1991 film The Fisher King.

Ross was born Theodore Ross Roberts in Zanesville, Ohio, but he moved with his family to Dayton at age seven. He died from complications of a stroke he suffered in 1998. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ted Ross, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Ted Ross...

The Fisher King
Title: The Fisher King
Character: Limo Bum
Released: September 20, 1991
Type: Movie
Two troubled men face their terrible destinies and events of their past as they join together on a mission to find the Holy Grail and thus to save themselves.
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Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Title: Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Character: Bitterman
Released: July 8, 1988
Type: Movie
Arthur loses his fortune for staying with Linda, right as the two were preparing to adopt a child. As their marriage suffers, Arthur plans for a way to get his money back, but first he must sober up and get a real job.
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Title: A Different World
Released: September 24, 1987
Type: TV
A Different World is an American television sitcom which aired for six seasons on NBC. It is a spin-off series from The Cosby Show and originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional mixed but historically black college in the state of Virginia. After Bonet's departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belle Whitley Gilbert and mathematics whiz Dwayne Wayne. The series frequently depicted members of the major historically black fraternities and sororities. While it was a spin-off from The Cosby Show, A Different World would typically address issues that were avoided by The Cosby Show writers. One episode that aired in 1990 was one of the first American network television episodes to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Title: The Equalizer
Character: Pike
Released: September 18, 1985
Type: TV
Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.
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Title: 227
Released: September 14, 1985
Type: TV
A housewife sits on the stoop of her apartment building in a black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and discusses all manner of things with her neighbors.
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Title: The Cosby Show
Released: September 20, 1984
Type: TV
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.
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Police Academy
Title: Police Academy
Character: Captain Reed
Released: March 22, 1984
Type: Movie
New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that sex, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter the Police Academy, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Not everyone is there through choice, though. Social misfit Mahoney has been forced to sign up as the only alternative to a jail sentence and it doesn't take long before he falls foul of the boorish Lieutenant Harris. But before long, Mahoney realises that he is enjoying being a police cadet and decides he wants to stay... while Harris decides he wants Mahoney out!
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Amityville II: The Possession
Title: Amityville II: The Possession
Character: Mr. Booth
Released: September 24, 1982
Type: Movie
A local priest tries to rid 112 Ocean Avenue of unclean spirits, but what he doesn't yet suspect is that teen Sonny Montelli has been possessed, body and soul, by a murderous demon bent on total destruction.
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Fighting Back
Title: Fighting Back
Character: Commissioner
Released: May 21, 1982
Type: Movie
An Italian deli owner forms a vigilante group to rid his Philadelphia neighborhood of street punks.
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Parole
Title: Parole
Character: Barney
Released: April 19, 1982
Type: Movie
High school dropout Jimmy McCusick goes to prison for robbery. After suffering a gang-rape and then drawing the attention of a hardened life-term convict, he is put in protective confinement. Upon being paroled he finds himself unable to hold onto either his girlfriend or his job. Parole officer Andy Driscoll must find a way to keep Jimmy from sliding back into crime.
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Ragtime
Title: Ragtime
Character: Black Lawyer
Released: November 20, 1981
Type: Movie
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
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Purlie
Title: Purlie
Character: Ensemble
Released: October 12, 1981
Type: Movie
Based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious (which was later translated into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby Dee, Alan Alda, Beah Richards, and Godfrey Cambridge), Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It won two Tony Awards and was also nominated for Best Musical. This 1981 television adaptation is directed by Rudi Goldman and stars Broadway cast members Guillaume, Moore, Hemsley, and Hopkins, with Brandon Maggart as Cotchipee, Clarice Taylor as Idilla, and Don Scardino as Charlie. The production won a CableACE Award.
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Arthur
Title: Arthur
Character: Bitterman
Released: July 17, 1981
Type: Movie
Arthur is a 30-year-old child who will inherit $750 million if he complies with his family's demands and marries the woman of their choosing.
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F.D.R.: The Last Year
Title: F.D.R.: The Last Year
Character: Prettyman
Released: May 15, 1980
Type: Movie
Though visibly frail and weary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime allies Stalin and Churchill.
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Death Penalty
Title: Death Penalty
Character: Woody
Released: January 22, 1980
Type: Movie
A strong-willed psychologist tries to rehabilitate a member of a Pittsburgh street gang who has been found guilty of the murder of two other teenagers in a playground rumble.
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The Wiz
Title: The Wiz
Character: Lion / Fleetwood Coup de Ville
Released: October 24, 1978
Type: Movie
Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.
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Wiz on Down the Road
Title: Wiz on Down the Road
Character: Lion
Released: January 1, 1978
Type: Movie
A short promotional film on the making of “The Wiz” (1978). Includes a brief history of Oz portrayals in film and behind the scenes interviews.
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The Fourth King
Title: The Fourth King
Character: Uno (voice)
Released: December 23, 1977
Type: Movie
The animals decide they must send a representative after the three wise men begin following the star of Bethlehem. Uno, the Lion, arrogantly decides he should be the one to go, and that he does not need any help. Feathers, who brought Jesus's birth to the attention of the animals, insists on traveling with him, and soon he is followed by a beaver, a rabbit, and a turtle.
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Minstrel Man
Title: Minstrel Man
Character: Charlie Bates
Released: March 2, 1977
Type: Movie
Two black brothers in a traveling minstrel show in the early part of the twentieth century have two different goals. One brother is determined to succeed in a field that is dominated by white performers in blackface, and the other is a composer fighting to break away from the stereotypes associated with black minstrel performers.
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Title: Sirota's Court
Released: December 1, 1976
Type: TV
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
Title: The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
Character: Sallie
Released: July 16, 1976
Type: Movie
In the world of 1930s Negro League baseball, a spirited team of renegade players travels around the Midwest looking for that one big score. Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams, and James Earl Jones star as three barnstorming ballplayers who take on prejudice and their own League's unfair rules while stealing cars, food and home base - anything to prove that they're the best team around. It's a showdown of brains over booby traps and sportsmanship over racial segregation as Bingo Long's All-Stars swing their way into a winning season;.
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Title: The Jeffersons
Released: January 18, 1975
Type: TV
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.
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Title: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.