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Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer of stage and screen. He gained prominence for his performances in the original Broadway productions of the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot, and Pippin, for which he won the 1973 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
At the age of 14, Vereen enrolled at the High School of Performing Arts where he studied under world-renowned choreographers Martha Graham, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. When Vereen was 18 years old, he made his New York stage debut off-Broadway in The Prodigal Son at the Greenwich Mews Theater. By the following year, he was in Las Vegas performing in Bob Fosse’s production of Sweet Charity, a show with which he toured in 1967–68. He returned to New York City to play Claude in Hair in the Broadway production before joining the national touring company. The following year, he was cast as an ensemble dancer in the film adaptation of Sweet Charity in which he is featured prominently in the “Rich Man’s Frug” dance number and the song “Rhythm of Life.” Vereen has also starred in numerous films and television programs and is well known for the role of ‘Chicken’ George Moore in Alex Haley’s landmark TV miniseries Roots, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1977.
For his humanitarian contributions, Vereen has received a number of awards including Israel’s Cultural and Humanitarian Award, three NAACP Image Awards, an Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and a Victory Award. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Arizona, Emerson College, St. Francis College, and Columbia College in Chicago. In 2001, Medgar Evers College created the Ben Vereen Scholarship for the Performing Arts, and in 2004 he received an Achievement in Excellence Award from his alma mater, the High School of the Performing Arts. In 1975, he was the first simultaneous winner of the “Entertainer of the Year,” “Rising Star,” and “Song and Dance Star” awards from the American Guild of Variety Artists. He also earned a coveted spot in the Casino Legends Hall of Fame, and was nominated for a “Career Achievement Award” by the Le Prix International Film Star Awards Organization in 2004. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was inducted into the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of Fame.
