Taurean Blacque

Taurean Blacque was an American television and stage actor, born in Newark, New Jersey, who trained at the New Federal Theatre, a New York City company created to give opportunities to minorities and women, before breaking into screen work. Early on he made guest appearances in sitcoms including Sanford and Son, Good Times and Taxi. He joined the police drama Hill Street Blues in 1981 as Detective Neal Washington and stayed for the whole of its run, which finished in 1987, earning a 1982 Primetime Emmy nomination. Stage work continued alongside it: he won an NAACP Image Award in 1985 for Amen Corner and took the male lead in Don't Get God Started in 1986, later appearing in Stepping Into Tomorrow and Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, revived in 1988. His later screen work included the voice of Roscoe in Oliver & Company (1988), a lead in DeepStar Six (1989) and Henry Marshall on NBC's Generations.