Lonne Elder III

Lonne Elder III (December 26, 1927 – June 11, 1996) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Elder was one of the leading African-American figures who informed the New York theater world with social and political consciousness. He also wrote scripts for television and film. His best known play, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, won him a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The play, which was about a Harlem barber and his family, was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969.

In 1973, Elder and Suzanne de Passe (who co-wrote Lady Sings the Blues) became the first African Americans to be nominated for the Academy Award in writing. Elder received the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for the movie Sounder, starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks and directed by Martin Ritt.