Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr. (March 21, 1934 â€" August 9, 2012) was
an American actor, director, and educator. A life member of The Actors
Studio, Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from
Leroi Jones' Slave/Toilet to Joe Papp's revivals of Long Day's Journey
Into Night and Troilus and Cressida, and films, including My Sweet
Charlie, Finian's Rainbow, and Malcolm X, as well as television series
and soap operas, such as One Life to Live, The Cosby Show, Law &
Order, Homicide: Life on the Street and The Edge of Night.Al Freeman
was born in San Antonio, Texas, to Lottie Brisette (née Coleman) and
Albert Cornelius Freeman, a jazz pianist. Taking a hiatus from
college, Freeman enlisted in the Air Force in 1951 to serve in the
Korean War. He is mostly recognized for his portrayal of police
captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, a role he
played from 1972 through 1987, with recurring appearances in 1988 and
2000. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for that
role in 1979, the first actor from the show as well as the first
African-American actor to earn the award. A director of One Life to
Live, he was one of the first African Americans to direct a soap
opera.[citation needed]Al Freeman was born in San Antonio, Texas, to
Lottie Brisette (née Coleman) and Albert Cornelius Freeman, a jazz
pianist. Taking a hiatus from college, Freeman enlisted in the Air
Force in 1951 to serve in the Korean War. He is mostly recognized for
his portrayal of police captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera One Life
to Live, a role he played from 1972 through 1987, with recurring
appearances in 1988 and 2000. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Lead Actor for that role in 1979, the first actor from the
show as well as the first African-American actor to earn the award. A
director of One Life to Live, he was one of the first African
Americans to direct a soap opera.[citation needed]After leaving One
Life to Live, Freeman appeared in the 1998 motion picture Down in the
Delta. His Broadway theatre credits include The Hot L Baltimore and
Look to the Lilies. His portrayal of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of
Islam leader, in the film Malcolm X earned him the 1992 NAACP Image
Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. He had
played Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations.
In the 1990s he had a recurring guest role as the manipulative
Baltimore deputy police commissioner James Harris in Homicide: Life on
the Street. In 1991 Freeman joined the Department of Theatre Arts at
Howard University in Washington, D.C., and served for six years as
department chairman.Al Freeman Jr. also appeared on Broadway in 1970
as Homer Smith in Look to the Lilies, a musical adaptation of Lilies
of the Field, opposite Shirley Booth. The show ran for 25 performances
and 31 previews. Al Freeman Jr. Top Movies & Young Movies