Charles Fuller, the groundbreaking playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for his enduring drama A Soldier’s Play, died Monday of natural causes in Toronto. He was 83.
His death was announced to the Associated Press by his wife Claire Prieto-Fuller.
“It has been my greatest honour to perform his words on both stage and screen,” said David Alan Grier, who starred in the 2020 Broadway production of A Soldier’s Play and also appeared in the 1984 film adaptation A Soldier’s Story. “His genius will be missed.”
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Set on a Louisiana Army base during World War II and focusing on a segregated Black regiment, A Soldier’s Play used a murder mystery to examine the racism present both in the world at large and within the regiment itself: The murder victim was a tough-as-nails Black sergeant loathed by his own soldiers.
Fuller wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation that starred Howard E. Rollins Jr. and, as the slain officer Adolph Caesar, earning an Oscar nomination.
Born in Philadelphia on March 5, 1939, Fuller attended Villanova University before enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958, spending four years stationed in Japan and South Korea. After the army, he founded and began writing for what would become the Afro-American Theatre of Philadelphia, serving as its co-director until moving to New York in 1970.
During the 1970s, Fuller wrote a number of Off Broadway plays, including The Perfect Party, The Brownsville Raid, and Zooman and the Sign, that were produced by the Negro Ensemble Company. Zooman and the Sign won two Obie Awards.
His signature work, A Soldier’s Play, opened on November 20, 1981, at the Negro Ensemble Company, and the following year won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, among numerous other awards. Fuller was hired by Columbia Pictures to write the screen adaptation, retitled A Soldier’s Story. The acclaimed film was nominated for three Oscars in 1985, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (for Fuller), and, for Rollins Jr., Best Supporting Actor.
The play has been staged numerous times, including a 2005 Off Broadway production starring Taye Diggs, Anthony Mackie and Steven Pasquale.
The 2020 production – the play’s first on Broadway – was directed by Kenny Leon and starred Grier as the murdered sergeant, and Blair Underwood as the Army investigator sent to solve the crime. Grier won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance, and the production won Best Revival.
Fuller’s other stage works include We and Eliot’s Coming. His TV credits include PBS’ The Sky Is Gray (1980) and CBS’ A Gathering of Old Men (1987).
According to the AP, Fuller is survived by his wife; son David; a daughter-in-law, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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