Antonio Fargas' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Everybody Hates Chris Doc Starsky & Hutch Huggy Bear I'm a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here! (UK) Antonio Far…

Main Movie Roles

BIOGRAPHY:

A tall, lanky and twinkle-eyed African-American actor with wonderful onscreen charisma, Antonio Fargas has been appearing on stage and screen for nearly 40 years. His film debut was in Shirley Clarke (I)'s The Cool World (1964), a gritty, uncompromising tale about African-American youth growing up in Harlem, New York. He then made his acting presence felt in many "blaxploitation" films of the early 1970s, including the classic Shaft (1971), the Mafia flick Across 110th Street (1972), the ultra-violent Pam Grier vehicle Foxy Brown (1974) and the classic tale of Huckleberry Finn (1975) (TV).

Around this time ABC-TV executives were looking for a capable actor to play the role of golden-hearted street informant "Huggy Bear" on "Starsky and Hutch" (1975), and Fargas scored the role with which he is most closely identified. His career continued to flourish after "Starsky and Hutch" wrapped up after four years, and he has appeared in over 50 movies to date, many TV shows and numerous stage productions. He has played a 90-year-old witch doctor in "The Great White Hope", was in Melvin Van Peebles' "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death", and appeared in productions of "The Rainmaker", "The Emperor Jones" and "Dream on Monkey Mountain". A strong advocate of the strength and diversity of African-American culture, Fargas holds positions on the boards of Rhode Island's Langton Hughes Center for the Arts and The Martin Luther King Center of Newport.


TRIVIA:

• Step-father of 'Matthew E. Chausse' (qv).
• His son, 'Justin Fargas' (qv), will be a senior running back at the University of Southern California in the fall of 2002. He previously played for the University of Michigan.
• Antonio restores old homes, including a 1790's colonial in Connecticut and an 1820s farm house in upstate New York.
• His performance as a pimp in _The Gambler (1974)_ (qv) helped him land the role of informant Huggy Bear in _"Starsky and Hutch" (1975)_ (qv).
• Appeared in stage production of "Blues Brothers" in UK, doing Cab Calloway's "Minnie The Moocher".
• After moving back to L.A. after his divorce, he appeared in music videos and started a music production company, Bump It.
• Fargas' son, Justin, was recently drafted as a running back by the Oakland Raiders.
• Son is 'Justin Fargas' (qv), a former running back at the University of Michigan.