BIOGRAPHY
Robert Earl Sawyer was born on June 5, 1923, in Miami, Florida, and departed this life November 11, 1994, in Oakland, California.
He was the son of Robert Wolworth Sawyer and Merline Tompson Sawyer who emigrated from Nassau, Bahamas Islands, to Florida.
He graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, Florida.
He was a United States Army WW II veteran.
After his separation from the military he attended New York University where he studied 4 years English and Drama, majoring in creative writing.
Two additional years of study were spent at the LaJos Egri School of Writing, New York, where he attended at the same time as Ira Levin.
He wrote, starred, produced and directed his own plays as well as the plays of other writers in New York, N.Y., Miami, FL, Washington, DC, Las Vegas, NE, San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles, CA.
Some of his plays are 'Blood in Mississippi,' 'What’s Good for the Goose,' 'The Breadwinner' and 'Enjoy All Things.'
He was the very first black playwright to perform his play 'What’s Good for the Goose' on Miami Beach, Florida in 1959.
'What’s Good for the Goose,' ran for twelve years intermittently in the San Francisco Bay area, California 1960’s -1980’s.
He also wrote, produced and directed the very first black television soap opera 'Rainbow Street.' It was played in Atlanta, GA, Pasadena, CA, Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV, in 1989.
Robert was truly a dedicated artist. His motto was 'The show must go on.'
His success was not measured in dollars and cents, for that was immaterial to him.
For him success is the ability to communicate with all people without prejudice for whom or what they were.
He never forgot that the world was just a big stage, and the people are the actors.
In his resume Robert Earl Sawyer states that he wrote over forty six (46) plays. So far we could only retrace 10 scripts, if you can supply us with more information about his work, this is very welcome. Please contact Errol Sawyer.
1950. |
Robert Earl Sawyer was married to Mamie Lucille Donaldson. |
Resume of Robert Earl Sawyer, written by himself:
Obituary of Robert Earl Sawyer, Oakland Tribune, CA, Thursday, November 17, 1994, page A16:
