The acting world is in mourning once again, with beloved character actor David McKnight passing away on Sunday.
The actor passed at 87 years of age in Las Vegas after a battle with cancer, his publicist and friend Cynthia Busby confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
He was best known for his work in J.D.’s Revenge, Under Siege and movies from director Robert Townsend such as Hollywood Shuffle and The Five Heartbeats.
McKnight was born on July 2, 1936, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, though he moved to Chicago when he was just four years of age.
He discovered acting at Wendell Phillips Academy High School and also perfformed at Wilson Junior College.
The acting world is in mourning once again, with beloved character actor David McKnight passing away on Sunday
The actor passed at 87 years of age in Las Vegas after a battle with cancer , his publicist and friend Cynthia Busby confirmed to The Hollywood Reporte r.
McKnight ultimately enlisted and served in the United States Army and worked as a police officer before delving into acting.
His first role was in Richard Durham’s Bird of the Iron Feather, an all-Black soap opera that aired on WTTV in Chicago in 1970.
He had small roles in the 1972 political dramatic comedy The Candidate, starring Robert Redford, and 1976’s Lifeguard with Sam Elliott and Anne Archer.
His first major role was in 1976’s J.D.’s Revenge, playing the title character, J.D. Walker.
The film followed Isaac Hendrix, a law student and cab driver who becomes the unwitting host for the ghost of J.D. Walker, who was killed 34 years prior.
He possesses Isaac to enact his revenge on killer in the film, which also starred Louis Gossett Jr.
McKnight went on to star in Michael Crichton’s 1978 film Coma with Michael Douglas, though he would spend much of the 1980s in guest-starring TV roles on shows like Dynasty, Benson and Hill Street Blues.
He shared in a 2018 interview that he knew Robert Townsend since they both grew up in Chicago, but after seeing an early screening of ‘pieces’ of the film, he offered his guidance and was ultimately cast as Uncle Ray.
He had small roles in the 1972 political dramatic comedy The Candidate, starring Robert Redford, and 1976’s Lifeguard with Sam Elliott and Anne Archer
McKnight went on to star in Michael Crichton’s 1978 film Coma with Michael Douglas, though he would spend much of the 1980s in guest-starring TV roles on shows like Dynasty, Benson and Hill Street Blues
He shared in a 2018 interview that he knew Robert Townsend since they both grew up in Chicago, but after seeing an early screening of ‘pieces’ of the film, he offered his guidance and was ultimately cast as Uncle Ray
‘He said, “You’re the only person who told me how to make this film work,”‘ McKnight recalled in the interview.
He added the film was made, ‘gangster style,’ without any permits and on a shoestring budget.
McKnight teamed up with Townsend again for 1991’s The Five Heartbeats, where he played Pastor Stone.
The actor would go on to play Flicker alongside Steven Seagal in 1992’s Under Siege, along with movies such as Sprung, Superhero Movie, and most recently the web series A House Divided.
