1.
Body and Soul (1984)
Benjamin Augustus Vereen, who started his acting career with stage productions and earned accolades, made his screen debut in musical-comedy drama film ‘Sweet Charity’ (1969) adapted from musical of same name, followed by black-comedy ‘Gas-s-s-s’ (1970).
Next, Vereen starred in biographical musical comedy drama-film ‘Funny Lady’ (1975). He made his TV debut as host of variety-series ‘Ben Vereen—Comin’ at Ya’ (1975) and played title role in TV-film ‘Louis Armstrong – Chicago Style’ (1976). His role as ‘Chicken George (grandson of ‘Kunta Kinte’) in multiple awards-winning miniseries ‘Roots’ (1977) based on Alex Haley’s novel, earned him an ‘Emmy’ nomination.
After appearing in musical-drama film ‘All That Jazz’ (1979), Vereen co-starred with Jeff Goldblum in detective-comedy TV-series ‘Tenspeed and Brown Shoe’ (1980). Further, he played ‘The Leading Player’ in ‘Pippin: His Life & Times’ (1981) TV-movie based on Broadway musical ‘Pippin’ that had won him ‘Tony Award.’
Vereen played various roles in TV-series ‘The Love Boat’ (1982-1984), a recurring role in sitcom ‘Webster’ (1983-1985) and also starred in several TV-films including ‘The Jesse Owen Story’ (1984), ‘Lost in London’ (1985), ‘Jenny’s Song’ (1988), ‘The Kid Who Loved Christmas’ (1990), ‘The Feast of All Saints’ (2001) and ‘An Accidental Friendship’ (2008) which fetched him ‘NAACP’ nomination.
Vereen played ‘Puss in Boots’ in TV’s ‘Faerie Tale Theater’ (1985), ‘Leopard-Mayor Ben’ in children’s series ‘Zoobilee Zoo’ (1986-1987), ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ in TV-film ‘Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme’ (1990). He was seen in several episodes of crime-drama series ‘J.J. Starbuck’ (1988) and ‘Silk Stalkings’ (1991-1993), sitcoms ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (2010-2014) and ‘B Positive’ (2021).
Vereen appeared on episodes of several TV-series including ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ ‘The Nanny,’ ‘Touched by an Angel,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent,’ ‘House of Payne,’ ‘Love That Girl,’ ‘NCIS,’ and many more.
The various films Vereen appeared in include teen-film ‘The Zoo Gang’ (1985), comedy-films ‘Buy & Cell’ (1988) and ‘Top Five’ (2014), romantic-drama ‘Why do Fools fall in Love’ (1998), ‘The Painting’ (2001), musical-films ‘Idlewild’ (2006) and ‘Mama, I Want to Sing’ (2011), romantic-comedy ‘And then Came Love’ (2007), war-film ’21 and a Wake-up’ (2009) and drama-film ‘Time out of Mind’ (2014).
