Andre De Shields (January 12, 1946) Is a Tony Award winning actor, singer, director, dancer, composer and college professor.
He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, the ninth of eleven children; his father died at the age of 50, when André was 17. De Shields obtained his high school diploma at Baltimore City College in 1964, then attended Wilmington College, where he starred in a production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. He then transferred colleges and earned his B.A. in English literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1970. In 1991, De Shields received his M.A. in African American studies from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University.
He soon began his career when he starred a in Chicago production of HAIR in 1969. He starred in many various musicals. But he became well-known when he starred as the Wizard in The Wiz in 1975.
He performed in a number of off-off-Broadway productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. These included Ken Rubenstein's Sacred Guard (1973), Lamar Alford's Thoughts (1974), and the Cotton Club Gala with music by Aaron Bell and directed by Ellen Stewart (1985). He co-wrote (with Judith Cohen) and directed an evening of songs called Judith and the Cohen Sisters in Midnight in Manhattan at La MaMa in September/October 1984. He directed a production of Chico Kasinoir's The Adventures of Rhubarb: The Rock and Roll Rabbit in 1985 and a production of his own work, Saint Tous, to celebrate Black History Month at La MaMa in February 1991.
De Shields received numerous awards, including three Chicago Joseph Jefferson Awards and nine AUDELCO Awards. In 1982, De Shields won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance for the NBC TV Special based on Ain’t Misbehavin’. In 2004, he received honorary doctorate of fine arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and from SUNY-Buffalo State. De Shields received a Village Voice OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance in 2007, and in 2009, he won the National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award. De Shields received a Distinguished Achievement Award from Fox Foundation Fellowship in 2012, a Making Waves Award from Florida Atlantic University in 2014, an Award for Excellence in The Arts from the theatre school at DePaul University in 2015, and a Pioneer of the Arts Award from Riant Theatre in 2016.
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