*Some of you are old enough to remember 80’s actor Stoney Jackson as one of the more visible dancers in the iconic music video for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” He was also featured in numerous teen magazines in the 70’s and 80’s including Right On, Teen Beat, and Tiger Beat.
His TV and big screen credits include “227,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Jefferson,” “Eight Is Enough,” and “Everybody Hates Chris.” In 1985, he co-starred in the short-lived crime series, “The Insiders,” and in 1997, he appeared in an episode of “Walker Texas Ranger.”
I Love Old School Music also notes that Jackson played a baseball player in the 1994 Disney film “Angels in the Outfield,” and he portrayed high school basketball player Jesse Mitchell on the ensemble series “The White Shadow.” Additionally, Stoney played Black Jack Savage in the pilot episode of “The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage.”
“Kool Keith” even has a song entitled “Stoney Jackson” in honor of the performer. And who could forget about his role as “Wacky D” in “CB4,” alongside Chris Rock?
Strong Arm Steady released “In Search Of Stoney Jackson” in 2009, and member Krondon explained to RapReview.com that the track is a reference to the mid-80’s detective show “The Insiders,” and what it is about Stoney that inspired him to name an album after him.
“In the 80’s his likeness represented something cool, from the curl to the clothes, and everyone who called them selves cool looked like that. It’s just like that now in that really different is dope, so it’s an homage to a freedom of expression, of just being you. It’s not like he was a big huge star but he was big enough to influence.”
55-year-old Stoney has stayed out of the public eye since the mid 2000’s, and for the past several years, he’s been working as a basketball referee in Southern California.
Jackson reportedly works as a high school and collegiate-level basketball referee. But Stoney hasn’t completely quit Hollywood. Last year, he co-starred in the Spanish language TV series, “Sangre Negra.”
Flashback: Check out Stoney Jackson in the video below of Dan Hartman’s 1984 smash it “I Can Dream About You” as the lead vocalist of the fictional group “The Sorels” – along with Robert Townsend and other actors – from the Walter Hill film “Streets of Fire.” The video was so good and realistic, that a lot of folks thought they were the actual singers of the song instead of Hartman!
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