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Melvin Van Peebles, circa 2001, as seen in the documentary "The Real Deal (What it Was...Is!)"

Melvin Van Peebles (born August 21, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright and composer, and the father of actor and director Mario Van Peebles.

Prior to entering Hollywood, Van Peebles directed the French film Story of a Three Day Pass (La Permission). His first Hollywood film was the 1970 comedy Watermelon Man, written by Herman Raucher. The movie told the story of a casually racist but well meaning white man who suddenly wakes up black and finds himself alienated from his friends, family and job. In 1970 Van Peebles was also to direct filming of the Powder Ridge Rock Festival which was banned by court injunction.

Van Peebles then wrote and directed the independent feature, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song which is credited with starting the blaxploitation genre. His son Mario's 2004 film BAADASSSSS! tells the story behind his father's film. Despite the success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, he has directed only a few other films.

Melvin Van Peebles speaks English, French and Dutch. He was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Van Peebles was recently the subject of a documentary entitled How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (2005). Van Peebles' next project will be a double album with Madlib, to be released on Stones Throw Records. The first disc of the album will be Brer Soul Meets Quasimoto and the second disc will be the Madlib Invazion remix. Madlib had previously sampled Van Peebles heavily on both of his albums under the Quasimoto moniker.^[1] He is also working on a new film, titled Memories of an Ex-Dufus Mother.^[2][3]

• (As "Melvin Van".) The Big Heart. San Francisco: Fearon, 1957. With photographs by Ruth Bernhard, a book about life on San Francisco's cable cars. "A cable car is a big heart with people for blood. The people pump on and off — if you think of it like that it is pretty simple" (p. 21).
• La Permission, (1967)

• Pickup Men for Herrick (short, 1957) also writer and composer
• Sunlight (short, 1957) also writer, composer and producer
• Cinq cent balles (short, 1963) also writer and composer
• The Story of a Three-Day Pass (also known as La Permission, 1967) also writer, from his novel La Permission, and composer
• Watermelon Man (1970) also composer
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) also actor, writer, composer, co-producer and editor
• Don't Play Us Cheap (1973) also writer, from his book Harlem Party and stage musical Don't Play Us Cheap, and composer
• Identity Crisis (1989) also actor, producer and editor
• Vroom Vroom Vroooom (segment from Tales of Erotica, also known as Erotic Tales, 1996) also writer, composer, producer and editor
• Gang in Blue (1996) co-director, actor and producer
• Le Conte du ventre plein (also known as Bellyful, 2000) also writer, composer and delegate producer
• Memories of an Ex-Dufus Mother

• Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971 Broadway musical book and score)
• Just an Old Sweet Song (also known as Down Home, Robert Ellis Miller, 1976) made for television; screenwriter and theme song
• Greased Lightning (Michael Schultz, 1977) screenwriter
• The Sophisticated Gents (Harry Falk, 1981) made for television; actor, screenwriter, song “Greased Lightning” and producer
• The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Gilbert Moses, 1987) made for television; screenwriter
• O.C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman, 1987) actor
• Jaws: The Revenge (Joseph Sargent, 1987) actor
• Sonny Spoon (1988) television series; actor
• Posse (Mario Van Peebles, 1993) actor
• Terminal Velocity (Deran Sarafian, 1994) actor
• Panther (Mario Van Peebles, 1995) based on his novel Panther, screenwriter, actor and producer
• The Shining (Mick Garris, 1997) television movie; actor
• Melvin Van Peebles' Classified X (Mark Daniels, 1998) documentary; screenwriter, actor and executive producer)
• The Hebrew Hammer (Jonathan Kesselman, 2003) actor

• Brer Soul (1969)
• Watermelon Man OST (1970)
• Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death (1970)
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song OST (1971)
• Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death Broadway Cast (1972)
• Don't Play Us Cheap OST (1973)
• As Serious As A Heart-Attack (1974)
• What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! (1974)
• Ghetto Gothic (1995)
• X-Rated by an All-White Jury (1997)

• Melvin Van Peebles at the Internet Movie Database
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• "Melvin Van Peebles interview" on the WGBH series, Say Brother
• Interview at SuicideGirls.com