Biography

Godfrey Cambridge

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Cambridge won a four-year scholarship to study medicine at Hofstra University but decided, instead, to become an actor, leaving college in his third year. He acted in many off-Broadway productions, winning the Village Voice's Obie Award in Jean Genet's "The Blacks"; and, on Broadway, he gained a Tony Award Nomination in "Purlie's Victorious". It was as a comedian that he broke into television, initially on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) (aka "The Jack Paar Show"). Having previously had occasional parts, he established himself in films in the late sixties. He played both comic and straight roles but is likely remembered for such portrayals as that of the white bigot who wakes up one morning to find himself turned black in Watermelon Man (1970). His compulsive eating probably contributed to his untimely death at 43 on the set of the television film Victory at Entebbe (1976), in which he was to have played General Idi Amin.
- IMDb mini biography by: anomynous

Died of heart attack on set of TV movie Victory at Entebbe (1976), where he was set to play Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Amin claimed Cambridge's death was "punishment from God."
Was originally set to star in The Partners (1971) but left during filming of the pilot because he did not get along with Don Adams.
In 1962 he co-founded the Committee for the Employment of Negro Performers with Charles Gordon and Hugh Hurd.
As a child he was sent to Nova Scotia, Canada to live with his grandparents while attending primary school.
Was nominated for Broadway's 1962 Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for "Purlie Victorious," a role he recreated in the film version titled Gone Are the Days! (1963).

[on why he left The Partners (1971)] On the set, Don Adams turns into Captain Queeg. He doesn't have those steel balls, but he drove me crazy. Now he's saying, 'The chemistry wasn't right.' Don is so uptight. Finally you have to say to him, 'Hey, man, the price ain't right. I'm willing to get off. I still have the original lining of my stomach. You can't buy a stomach for $25,000. I'll get out while I still have my own'. If you tried to find out who in this industry hates Don Adams the most, the line would run all the way to Phoenix.

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