Chuck Cooper

Personal Information
Chuck Cooper is a veteran of ten Broadway plays and musicals, and numerous television and film guest lead appearances over the span of his 30 years as a professional actor. He won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical for his portrayal of Memphis in The Life. His other Broadway credits include: Finnian’s Rainbow; Lennon; Caroline Or Change (Audelco Award, Best Featured Actor); Chicago; Passion; Someone to Watch Over Me; Rumors; Amen Corner; Getting Away With Murder. National tours: The Tap Dance Kid; Eubie; and Whistle Down the Wind. Off-Broadway: Lost In The Stars (City Centers Encores Series); Caroline Or Change (the Public Theatre); On The Levee (Lincoln Center); Thunder Knocking On The Door (Minetta Lane, Audelco Nomination); The Piano Lesson, Marco Polo Sings a Solo (Signature Theatre); Avenue X; Police Boys; Four Short Operas (Playwrights Horizons); Colored People's Time (Negro Ensemble Co.); King Island Christmas (SIR Studios); Regional Theatre: Jitney, In This House, Two Trains Running (Two River Theater Co.) All My Sons (The Intiman Theatre) Being Alive (Westport Country Playhouse); Dance of the Holy Ghosts (Yale Rep); The World Beyond the Hill (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Robeson (Passage Theatre); Othello (New Jersey Shakespeare Festival); Julius Caesar (Philadelphia Drama Guild); Hamlet, Twelfth Night (DC Shakespeare Theatre Company) The Doctor Is Out, Coriolanus, Timon Of Athens, Two Trains Running (San Diego Critics Circle Award, The Old Globe Theatre); The Tempest, American Dreams Lost And Found (Alliance Theatre). Television credits: "House Of Cards;" "Gossip Girls;" "Nurse Jackie;" "3 LBS;" "Hack;" "100 Centre Street;" "Law & Order;" "Law And Order SVU;" "Oz;" "Strangers with Candy;" "NYPD Blue;" "Cosby;" "The Cosby Mysteries;" "New York Undercover;" "I'll Fly Away;" "The Bold and the Beautiful;" "As The World Turns." Film credits: Boy Wonder; Noise; Evening; American Gangster; Find Me Guilty; Three Days of Rain; Our Song; The Hurricane; The Opportunists; Gloria; The Peacemaker; The Juror; North; Criminal Justice. Mr. Cooper was a Beinecke Fellow at the Yale school of drama. Favorite role: Eddie, Alex and Lilli's father.

Updated: April 2013
 
Credits

Actor
Production Theatre Opened Credit
1 Much Ado About Nothing Delacorte Theater 06/11/2019 Leonato
2 Choir Boy New York City Center/ Stage II 07/02/2013 Headmaster Marrow
3 The Piano Lesson Pershing Square Signature Center/ Irene Diamond Stage 11/18/2012 Wining Boy
4 On the Levee The Duke on 42nd Street 06/28/2010 Old Lucas / Rev. Booker
5 Caroline, or Change Joseph Papp Public Theater/ Newman Theater 11/30/2003 The Dryer/The Bus
6 Thunder Knocking on the Door Minetta Lane Theatre 06/20/2002 Jaguar Senior/Dregster Dupree
7 Marco Polo Sings a Solo Peter Norton Space 09/15/1998 Frank Schaeffer
8 Police Boys Playwrights Horizons 04/15/1995 Capt. Jabali Abdul LaRouche
9 Avenue X Playwrights Horizons 01/28/1994 Roscoe
10 Four Short Operas Playwrights Horizons 12/11/1991 Man 1 (Break)/ Man (Agnes)/ Man in Dirty Dungarees (Eulogy for Mister Hamm)/ Cabbie (Lucky Nurse)
11 The Life Westbeth Theatre 07/30/1990 Memphis
12 Colored People's Time Cherry Lane Theatre 03/30/1982 Isaac/Blind John/Abner/Bert
Awards
Award Production Function
1 WON 2020 Antonyo Award, Lifetime Achievement Award    
2 NOMINATED 2019 AUDELCO Award, Featured Actor in a Musical Much Ado About Nothing Actor
3 WON 2013 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Featured Actor The Piano Lesson Actor
4 WON 2013 AUDELCO Award, Supporting Actor The Piano Lesson Actor
5 WON 2013 AUDELCO Award, Outstanding Ensemble Performance Choir Boy Actor
6 NOMINATED 2013 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play The Piano Lesson Actor