Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. is an actor from the United States.
Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri to teacher Bettye Cheadle and clinical psychologist Donald Frank Cheadle Sr. Cheadle continued his education at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater in 1986.
What made Don Cheadle famous?
Cheadle received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1998 television film The Rat Pack, which made him famous.
Cheadle earned his Screen Actors Guild card for his role as a burger joint employee in the 1985 comedy Moving Violations. In 1987, he had a small part in the seventh season of Hill Street Blues as a teenager with learning disabilities. This was followed by a performance in Hamburger Hill the following year. Cheadle landed the role of Jack in the Night Court episode “Jung and the Restless” on April 1, 1988; although his character was 16, Cheadle was 23 at the time.
Cheadle received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1998 television film The Rat Pack. A year later, he starred in the film A Lesson Before Dying as Grant Wiggins, a schoolteacher who won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. It was based on Ernest J. Gaines’ novel of the same name.
