*The family of Emmy Award nominated actor Taurean Blacque has announced his passing today (07/21/2022) in Atlanta at age 82, following a brief illness.
The actor best known for his Emmy Nominated role of Detective Neal Washington on the critically acclaimed NBC drama “Hill Street Blues,” got his start and trained at the Negro Ensemble Company in New York.
The Theater was founded to serve the needs of African American Actors and served as a springboard for him to secure roles on stage and in Hollywood. Early in his career Blacque secured guest roles on such top rated sitcoms as The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi and such seminal shows as Sanford and Son, What’s Happening and Good Times, to name a few. He joined the cast of the long running, award winning series Hill St Blues in 1981, and stayed until the show ended in 1987.
In 1982, he was Nominated for an Emmy Award For Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for the popular police procedural. In addition to continuing his passion on stage, Blacque was an original cast member (opposite Viveca Fox) of the ground breaking TV soap opera Generations which was the first serial to include an African American family as part of the main story line. He was very active in the Atlanta Black Theater Company and North Carolina’s Black Theater Festival.
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On the personal front, Blacque was a model single parent to two biological sons and went on to adopt 11 more children.
As a result, he was named spokesman for The County Of Los Angeles Adoption Services. In 1989, he was asked by President George H.W. Bush to become national spokesperson for adoption.
One of Blacque’s sons pre-deceased him, however, he leaves his 12 children,18 grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren to mourn his passing.
Information concerning funeral services was not immediately available.
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