Obituaries

Samm-Art Williams, Whose Drama Home Begins a Broadway Revival This Week, Dies at 78

Williams was also an executive producer on the sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirMartin, and Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper.

| Philadelphia |

May 13, 2024

thumbnail Samm Art Williams[4]
Samm-Art Williams
(handout image)
Playwright Samm-Art Williams, whose Tony-nominated 1980 drama Home will be revived on Broadway beginning this Friday, died Monday, May 13, at the age of 78.

In addition to a Tony nomination for Best Play for the original production of Home, Williams also earned a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. His other plays include Welcome to Black River, The Sixteenth Round, Eyes of the American, and Friends, among others. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway in Leslie Lee’s The First Breeze of Summer, as well as countless other productions for the Negro Ensemble Company, which produced originally Home off and on Broadway.

Williams had a prolific career in television, serving as an executive producer on the seminal 1990s sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirMartin, and Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper. An Emmy nominee for Motown Returns to the Apollo and Frank’s Place, Williams also wrote on Cagney and Lacey and Miami Vice.

Born January 20, 1946, in Philadelphia and educated at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Williams, who was not married and did not have children, has no immediate survivors besides five cousins.

Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Home, which will run at the Todd Haimes Theatre beginning May 17, is directed by Kenny Leon, and stars Tory Kittles, Stori Ayers, and Brittany Inge.

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