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Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Santiago-Hudson in 2022
Born	Ruben Santiago Jr. (1956-11-24) November 24, 1956 (age 68) Lackawanna, New York, U.S.
Occupations	Actor playwright director
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Jeannie Brittan
Children	4

Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 2009 to 2011 on ABC's Castle. In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly. In 2013, he starred in the TV series Low Winter Sun, a police drama set in Detroit. In 2021, he was nominated for best adaptation by the Screen Writers Guild for the film version of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Early life

Ruben Hudson was born in 1956 in Lackawanna, New York, the son of Alean Hudson and Ruben Santiago, a railroad worker. He later adopted his mother's maiden name as part of his compound surname. His father was Puerto Rican and his mother was African American. He went to Lackawanna High school, earned his bachelor's degree from Binghamton University, his master's degree from Wayne State University and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buffalo State College and Wayne State University.

Career

In 2003, he was the reader in Volume 13 of the HBO film, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. The series was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. He wrote Lackawanna Blues (2001), an autobiographical play in which he portrayed himself and some twenty different characters from his past, which was produced in New York at the Joseph Papp Theatre in 2001. He adapted it for a highly acclaimed, award-winning 2005 HBO film, in which the parts were played by different people. It won the Humanitas Prize and earned Emmy and Writers Guild of America Award nominations.

Santiago-Hudson appeared on Broadway in Jelly's Last Jam (1992), written by George C. Wolfe. He received the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in August Wilson's Seven Guitars.

On television, he has appeared on the daytime soap operas One Life to Live, Another World and All My Children. His work in primetime series have included The Cosby Mysteries, New York Undercover, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, Third Watch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and five episodes of Law & Order (which coincidentally stars Lackawanna Blues star S. Epatha Merkerson), among others. He starred as New York City Police Captain Roy Montgomery in the ABC series Castle until his character's death occurred in the third season finale. In 2007 he starred in a PBS Nova documentary about the life of chemist Percy Lavon Julian.

In 2013, Santiago-Hudson won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director, an Obie Award for Direction, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for his work in the Off-Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson.

In 2016, he won the Obie Awards Special Citation for Collaboration for his work on Skeleton Crew with Dominique Morisseau and the Atlantic Theater Company.

Santiago-Hudson narrated a number of audiobooks, including James Patterson's Cross Justice which was recognized by the 2017 Audie Award and AudioFile magazine's Earphones Award.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Honors

• 1996, Tony Award for performance in Seven Guitars
• 2006, Humanitas Award for writing, for HBO film adaptation of his play Lackawanna Blues.
• 2009, NAACP Lifetime Achievement Theatre Award at the Los Angeles NAACP Theatre Awards. He played Mayor Joe Starks in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Personal life

Santiago-Hudson has four children: Broderick Santiago and Ruben Santiago III from previous relationships, and Trey and Lily from his marriage with Jeannie Brittan.

When he came to New York in 1983, he was known as Ruben Santiago. He tried to get a part at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and was asked if he spoke Spanish, which he does not. When he wanted to work at the Negro Ensemble Company, "they laughed and said, 'We don't have Puerto Ricans.'" So he added his mother's name, Hudson, and eventually won a part in A Soldier's Play at the Ensemble Company.

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of Puerto Ricans of African descent

References

1. "All that you wanted to know about the Broadway production 'Stick Fly'". StickFlyBroadway.com. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
2. Hetrick, Adam (September 7, 2011). "Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Dulé Hill and Tracie Thoms to Star in Stick Fly on Broadway". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
3. "Ruben Santiago-Hudson profile, FilmReference.com; accessed October 14, 2010.
4. ^ Ruben Santiago-Hudson profile, DanaRoc.com; accessed April 19, 2016.
5. Gordon, Eric A. (March 15, 2019). "'Lackawanna Blues' a theatrical triumph for Ruben Santiago-Hudson". www.peoplesworld.org. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
6. "The Many Lives of 'Lackawanna Blues'". centertheatregroup.org. February 25, 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
7. "Ruben Santiago-Hudson". sdcfoundation.org. Stage Directors and Choreographers Workshop Foundation. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
8. Gerard, Jeremy (June 2, 2017). "Tony Watch: Ruben Santiago-Hudson On His August Wilson Passion Project, 'Jitney'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
9. Healy, Patrick (2013-05-05). "'Piano Lesson' and 'The Whale' Win Lortel Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
10. Gans, Andrew (2013-05-20). "Detroit, Grimly Handsome, Eisa Davis, John Rando, Shuler Hensley and More Are Obie Winners". Playbill. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
11. Healy, Patrick (2013-05-20). "Obie Awards Honor 'Detroit' and 'Grimly Handsome'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
12. Hetrick, Adam (2013-05-19). "Billy Porter, Andrea Martin, Pippin, Matilda, Vanya and Sonia Win Drama Desk Awards". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
13. Village Voice Staff, "The Complete List of 2016 Obie Award Honorees", The Village Voice, May 24th, 2016.
14. "2017 Audie Awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
15. "Audiobook Reviews: Read by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Earphones Award Winner". AudioFile Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
16. ^ ABC's Castle "Ruben Santiago- Hudson" aka Det.Montgomery, October 17, 2009; accessed October 14, 2010.
17. "Ruben Santiago-Hudson | The HistoryMakers". www.thehistorymakers.org. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
18. Smith, Dinitia (14 May 1996). "A Performance Shaped by Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 November 2018.

External links

• Ruben Santiago-Hudson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson at IMDb

• 1956 births
• Living people
• 20th-century African-American male actors
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century African-American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• Male actors from New York (state)
• American male film actors
• 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
• American male screenwriters
• Binghamton University alumni
• People from Lackawanna, New York
• American people of Puerto Rican descent
• Tony Award winners
• American male voice actors
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American male dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century American male writers
• Screenwriters from New York (state)
• 20th-century African-American writers
• 21st-century African-American people
• African-American male writers