Charles S. Dutton

American actor, director and producer (born 1951) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Stanley Dutton (born January 30, 1951) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the television series Roc (1991–1994) and the television film The Piano Lesson (1995), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. His other accolades include three Primetime Emmy Awards and three NAACP Image Awards.

Born

Charles Stanley Dutton

January 30, 1951 (age 75)

Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Education

Occupations

Yearsactive1984–2016

Quick facts Born, Education ...

Charles S. Dutton
Dutton in 2000
Born	Charles Stanley Dutton (1951-01-30) January 30, 1951 (age 75) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Education	Hagerstown Community College (AA) Towson University (BA) Yale University (MFA)
Occupations	Actor director producer
Years active	1984–2016
Spouse	Debbi Morgan (m. 1989; div. 1994)

Dutton has also appeared in many feature films such as Alien 3 (1992), Menace II Society (1993), A Time to Kill (1996), Black Dog (1998), Cookie's Fortune (1999), and Gothika (2003).

Early life

Charles Stanley Dutton was born on January 30, 1951,^[1] on the east side of Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a truck driver and his parents divorced when he was four.^[2] He grew up in Baltimore's Latrobe Homes public housing project.^[3] In his youth, Dutton dropped out of school before finishing middle school. He had a short-lived stint as an amateur boxer with the nickname "Roc", a nickname derived from "Rockhead", due to rock throwing battles which took place during Dutton's childhood.^[4]

In 1967, when he was 16,^[5] Dutton got into a fight that resulted in the death of a man Dutton claimed had attacked him with a knife.^[6]

Prison convictions, discovering acting, and education

After the knife fight, Dutton pleaded guilty in 1967 to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison, which he began serving at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, Maryland. Out on parole after 18 or 20 months,^{[notes 1]} he was arrested on robbery and handgun charges.^[7] He was sentenced on the handgun violation and sent to the Maryland Penitentiary, near his boyhood home, for three more years.^[8] A fight with a guard added on another eight years.^[9] In reference to this, Dutton later said, "I got three years for killing a black man and eight for punching a white man."^[10]

During his prison term, Dutton was stabbed by another prisoner and nearly died. He became interested in radical movements and the Black Panther Party.^[11]^[12]

Several months into his second prison term, Dutton was sentenced to six days of solitary confinement for refusing to clean toilets.^[13] Prisoners were allowed to take one book and, unintentionally, he grabbed an anthology of black playwrights. He enjoyed the book so much that upon release from solitary, he petitioned the warden to start a drama group for the winter talent show. The warden agreed on the condition that Dutton go back to school and get his GED. Dutton accomplished that and eventually completed a two-year college program at Hagerstown Junior College (now Hagerstown Community College) in Hagerstown, Maryland, graduating with an Associate of Arts degree in 1976.

Dutton acting in a 1979 production of *Equus*

Dutton was paroled on August 20, 1976.^[6]^[14]^[15] After his release from prison, he enrolled as a drama major at Towson State University (now Towson University) in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, Maryland, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978.^[16] After his time at Towson, Dutton earned a master's degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama in 1983.^[17]

Acting career

In 1984, Dutton made his Broadway debut in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, winning a Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1988, Dutton played Leroy Brown in Crocodile Dundee II and a killer in the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan opposite Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey. In 1990, Dutton earned a second Best Actor Tony nomination for his role in another Wilson play, The Piano Lesson. Dutton co-starred in Alien 3, the debut film of director David Fincher, then co-starred in 1993's Rudy. Other films he has appeared in include Get on the Bus, A Time to Kill, Cookie's Fortune, Cry, the Beloved Country, Surviving the Game, Menace II Society, Secret Window, and A Low Down Dirty Shame.

Dutton won Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2003 for his roles in The Practice and Without a Trace. He was previously nominated in 1999 for his guest-starring role as Alvah Case in the HBO prison drama Oz in its second-season premiere episode. For this role, he was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Also in 1999, he starred in an ensemble cast in Aftershock: Earthquake in New York in which he played the Mayor of New York City. Dutton gained acclaim for his comedy show Roc shown on FOX television (but produced by HBO) from 1991 to 1994. His work in this role won him an NAACP Image Award. He co-starred in the popular but short-lived 2005 CBS science fiction series, Threshold.

In 2000, Dutton directed the HBO miniseries The Corner. The miniseries was close to his heart, for Dutton grew up on the streets of East Baltimore. It was adapted from The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (Broadway Books, 1997) by David Simon (a reporter for the Baltimore Sun) and Ed Burns (a retired Baltimore homicide detective). The Corner won several Emmys in 2000, including Best Miniseries. Dutton won for his direction of the miniseries. He worked with Simon previously in a 1996 episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.

He starred as Montgomery County, Maryland Police Chief Charles Moose in the 2003 made-for-TV movie D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, and appeared in Season 2 of The L Word. Dutton also appeared in "Another Toothpick," an episode of The Sopranos. He guest starred on House M.D. as the father of Dr Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Also had a small role in First Time Felon alongside Omar Epps and on Sleeper Cell: American Terror as the father of undercover FBI agent Darwyn Al-Sayeed. He also directed two episodes of Sleeper Cell.

On October 9, 2007, HBO announced that it had arranged a deal with Dutton where he would develop, direct, and star in series and movies for the network.^[18] He also appeared in the 2007 film Honeydripper. On February 14, 2013, Dutton returned to TV in Zero Hour, playing the role of a priest. In 2013, Dutton played Detective Margolis in the horror film The Monkey's Paw.^[19]

Filmography

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Charles S. Dutton film credits
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Cat's Eye	Dom
1986	The Best of Times	Doctor Death	Uncredited
1988	No Mercy	Sergeant Sandy
1988	Crocodile Dundee II	Leroy Brown
1989	Jacknife	Jake
1990	Q&A	Detective Sam Chapman
1991	Mississippi Masala	Tyrone Williams
1992	Jack Reed: One of Our Own	Lt. Charles Silvera
1992	Alien 3	Leonard Dillon	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
1992	The Distinguished Gentleman	Elijah Hawkins
1993	Menace II Society	Mr. Butler
1993	Rudy	Fortune
1994	Surviving the Game	Walter Cole
	Foreign Student	Howlin' Wolf
	A Low Down Dirty Shame	Sonny Rothmiller
1995	Cry, the Beloved Country	John Kumalo
	Seven	Cop	Uncredited
	Nick of Time	Huey
1996	A Time to Kill	Sheriff Ozzie Walls
1996	Get on the Bus	George
1997	Mimic	Officer Leonard Norton
1998	Black Dog	Agent Allen Ford
1999	Cookie's Fortune	Willis Richland	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1999	Random Hearts	Alcee
2002	Eye See You	FBI Agent Hendricks
2003	Gothika	Dr. Douglas Grey
2004	Against the Ropes	Felix Reynolds	Also director
2004	Secret Window	Ken Karsch
2005	The L.A. Riot Spectacular	The Mayor
2007	Honeydripper	Maceo
2008	The Third Nail	Sydney Washington
	American Violet	Reverend Sanders
	The Express: The Ernie Davis Story	Willie Davis
2009	Fame	Mr. James Dowd
2010	Legion	Percy Walker
2012	Bad Ass	Panther
	Least Among Saints	George
	The Obama Effect	John Thomas
	LUV	Cofield
2013	The Monkey's Paw	Detective Margolis
2014	Android Cop	Mayor Jacobs
	Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery	Cookie
	Comeback Dad	Othell
2015	The Perfect Guy	Roger Vaughn
2015	Carter High	Freddie James
2016	Veneration	Lt. A.J. Robertson	Short

Television

More information Year, Title ...

Charles S. Dutton television credits
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985, 1986	Miami Vice	Lieutenant Pearson/Ed McCain	2 episodes
1985	The Equalizer	Abmennet	Episode: "Bump and Run"
1986	Cagney & Lacey	Mr. Johnson	Episode: "The Marathon"
1986	Apology	Asst. District Attorney	Television film
1988	The Murder of Mary Phagan	Jim Conley	Television film
1991–1994	Roc	Roc Emerson	72 episodes
1994	Are You Afraid of the Dark?	Captain Jonas Cutter	2 episodes
1995	The Piano Lesson	Boy Willie	Television film Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie^{[citation needed]}
1995	Zooman	Emmett	Television film
1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	Elijah Sanborn	Episode: "Prison Riot"
1997	First Time Felon	N/A	Television film Director
1998	Oz	Professor Alva Case	Episode: "The Tip" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
1998	Blind Faith	Charles Williams	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
1999	Aftershock: Earthquake in New York	Mayor Bruce Lincoln	Television film
1999	The 60's	Reverend Willie Taylor
2000	Deadlocked	Jacob Doyle
	For Love or Country	Dizzy Gillespie
	The Corner	N/A	Miniseries; 6 episodes Director Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special
2001	Ed	Reverend Carver	Episode: "Valentine's Day"
	The Sopranos	Officer Wilmore	Episode: "Another Toothpick"
	The Practice	Leonard Marshall	Episode: "Killing Time" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
2002	10,000 Black Men Named George	Milton Webster	Television film
2002–2003	Without a Trace	Chet Collins	2 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
2003	D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear	Chief Charles Moose	Television film
2004	Something the Lord Made	William Thomas
2005	Mayday	Admiral Randolf Hennings
2005	The L Word	Dr. Benjamin Bradshaw	4 episodes
2005–2006	Threshold	J.T. Baylock	13 episodes
2006–2007	House	Rodney Foreman	2 episodes
2007	My Name Is Earl	Reggie	Episode: "Get a Real Job"
2008	Racing for Time	Lt. Stack	Television film Also director
2009	CSI: NY	Talmadge Neville	Episode: "Greater Good"
2010	Dark Blue	Walter Shell	Episode: "Shell Game"
2011	Law & Order: LA	Reverend Davidson	Episode: "Carthay Circle"
	Criminal Minds	Tony Cole	Episode: "The Bittersweet Science"
	American Horror Story: Murder House	Detective Granger	2 episodes
2012	The Good Wife	Pastor Damon	Episode: "Blue Ribbon Panel"
2012–2014	Longmire	Detective Fales	6 episodes
2013	Zero Hour	Father Mickle	6 episodes
2014	The Following	FBI Director Tom Franklin	Episode: "The Messenger"
2015	Bessie	William 'Pa' Rainey	Television film

Stage

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Levee	Broadway Theatre World Award^[20] Nominated - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play - 1985^[21]
1990	The Piano Lesson	Boy Willie	Broadway Nominated - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play^[22]
2003	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (revival)	Levee	Broadway
2009	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman	Yale Repertory Theater^[23]

Notes

[1]
Some sources say 18 months, others like the 2000 Farhi article state 20 months.

References

[1]
Jones-Brown, Delores D.; Frazier, Beverly D.; Brooks, Marvie (2014). African Americans and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-313-35717-6.
[2]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Dutton's parents divorced when he was 4. He was raised by his mother, who cleaned houses and proudly refused to accept welfare to feed her three children.
[3]
"BRIEF OF FORMER JUVENILE OFFENDERS CHARLES S. DUTTON, FORMER SEN. ALAN K. SIMPSON, R. DWAYNE BETTS, LUIS RODRIGUEZ, TERRY K. RAY, T.J. PARSELL, AND ISHMAEL BEAH AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS" (PDF). July 23, 2009. p. 8. Dutton grew up in the Latrobe Homes housing projects in Baltimore. His childhood bedroom overlooked the Maryland Penitentiary, an imposing and dark gothic structure built in the early 1800s.
[4]
Hawkins, Theresa (August 14, 1990). "CHARLES S. DUTTON". allaboutactors.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Instead of snowball battles in my neighborhood, we used to have rock fights. We'd make little forts out of cardboard and trash cans, and throw rocks at each other on the other side of the street. Once your fort was knocked down, you had to go out and charge the other guys with a handful of rocks. I used to lead the charge, and I'd get hit badly. At least twice a month I'd get my head busted and they started calling me 'Rockhead.' Then I used to box for a while, and they took the 'head' off, and just called me 'Roc.' People still call me 'Roc.'
[5]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2019. In 1967, at age 16, he got into a street fight with a man in his twenties. He stabbed the man repeatedly. The man bled to death, and Dutton was sentenced to five years at the state prison in Jessup for manslaughter.
[6]
Scott, Janny (June 11, 2000). "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2019. What had saved Charles Dutton was prison. He dropped out of school at 12 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter at 17, after stabbing a black man who had pulled a knife on him in a fight. He served two years. Then he was sent back for weapons possession, fought with a white guard, and ended up serving another seven and a half.
[7]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Not long after being released, he was arrested again, on robbery and weapons charges. A conviction on the latter count earned him a three-year sentence in the Maryland State Pen, the institution that stood outside his old bedroom window.
[8]
"BRIEF OF FORMER JUVENILE OFFENDERS CHARLES S. DUTTON, FORMER SEN. ALAN K. SIMPSON, R. DWAYNE BETTS, LUIS RODRIGUEZ, TERRY K. RAY, T.J. PARSELL, AND ISHMAEL BEAH AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS" (PDF). July 23, 2009. p. 9. When he was seventeen, Dutton was involved in a street fight that escalated into a knife fight. He and his assailant stabbed each other. Only Dutton survived. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years of imprisonment. Dutton was out on parole for only a few months when he returned to prison for possession of a deadly weapon (a handgun). When a prison riot broke out, Dutton participated and punched a guard. He was sentenced to an additional eight years of imprisonment. "I knew what I was doing," he says. "For a long time I didn't want to hear anything positive. I just wanted to know when we were going to burn down the prison."
[9]
Loynd, Ray (January 18, 1990). "Charles Dutton Not a Prisoner of His Past: Stage: Former convict who has earned a Tony nomination takes on his latest challenging role in August Wilson's 'The Piano Lesson.'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 20, 2019. My manslaughter conviction came from a fight with a guy who stabbed me seven times. I wrestled the knife from him and killed him. Got 18 months (in 1967). Then got three years for possession of a weapon and another eight years tacked on for a fight with a guard.
[10]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2019. One day a guard kept him from seeing a visitor. Enraged, Dutton challenged him to a fistfight. As Dutton describes it, they had 'a wonderful, nice 10 minutes busting each other up' in a locked room. Dutton figured it was a fair fight. But the guard eventually pressed charges ('he was pressured to do so,' Dutton claims). The conviction earned Dutton eight more years in prison. He is bitterly amused by this: 'I got three years for killing a black man and eight for punching a white man.'
[11]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2019. ...a fellow con stabbed Dutton in the neck with an ice pick. The blade plunged into his lungs, collapsing one of them, but missing his arteries. Still, he nearly bled to death. The injury only stoked his rage. He had become a fire-breathing radical, a Black Panther who read Mao, Marx and Malcolm X and 'believed wholeheartedly in the armed overthrow of the U.S. government. I was prepared to die for it.'
[12]
Muhammad, Toure (July 14, 2012). "Charles S. Dutton talks dignity, integrity, and independence". The Final Call. Retrieved October 19, 2019. 'I was in the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, raised hell in the streets and spent 12 years in and out the penal institution, seven and a half the last time.'
[13]
Farhi, Paul (April 12, 2000). "Drama and Deliverance". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Not long afterward, he refused to accept an assignment cleaning toilets, and was banished to isolation for three days. There, in a dim 5-by-7-foot cell, Dutton read a book of plays he'd found in the prison library. He was transfixed, transported and ultimately transformed.
[14]
Widener, Pam (March–April 1996). "IN A HARD PLACE: THE METEORIC RISE OF CHARLES S. DUTTON" (PDF). Prison Life. p. 48. This August will mark the 20th anniversary of actor Charles Dutton's release from the Maryland State Penitentiary, where he spent seven-and-a-half years for manslaughter and other charges.
[15]
King, Susan (August 25, 1991). "TELEVISION: From Hard Time to Prime Time: Ex-con Charles Dutton, twice a Tony nominee on Broadway, accepts the challenge of a TV comedy series--but wonders if it's the right thing to do". Los Angeles Times. In and out of reform school and prison since he was 12, Dutton received his parole on Aug. 20, 1976, and closed the door on his old life.
[16]
Zurawik, David (July 23, 1997). "A Hard Place Hollywood didn't want to listen to Charles Dutton and his message of 'the silent black majority' in 'Roc.' So the Baltimore native tries again to be heard with 'First-Time Felon". The Baltimore Sun. Dutton's jail-to-Yale biography is a compelling one. After getting out of prison in 1976, he spent two years studying theater at Towson State University and then went on to earn a drama degree from Yale before going to Broadway.
[17]
Muhammad, Toure (July 14, 2012). "Charles S. Dutton talks dignity, integrity, and independence". The Final Call. Retrieved October 19, 2019. Dutton got his GED and completed a couple of college acting programs before finally earning his master's from Yale. And he hit the ground running. 'When I graduated out of Yale School of Drama in 1983, I didn't really have a long struggling actor career...
[18]
Michael Schneider (October 10, 2007). "Dutton back in biz at HBO". Daily Variety. p. 4.
[19]
"Cast | Monkey's Paw". Monkey's Paw. Monkeyspawthemovie.com. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
[20]
"About 1". Theatre World Awards. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
[21]
"The Tony Award Nominations". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
[22]
"The Tony Award Nominations". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
[23]
"With a Blank Slate, Dutton Creates His Own Willy Loman (Published 2009)". May 7, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2025.

Charles S. Dutton

Early life

Prison convictions, discovering acting, and education

Acting career

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Notes

References

External links

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