Glynn Turman

Glynn Turman
Turman in 2007.
Born	Glynn Russell Turman (1947-01-31) January 31, 1947 (age 70) New York City, New York, U.S
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, director, writer
Years active	1972–present
Known for	Leroy "Preach" Jackson – Cooley High Bradford Taylor – A Different World Clarence Royce – The Wire
Spouse(s)	Ula M. Walker (m. 1965–71) Aretha Franklin (m. 1978–84) Jo-Ann Allen (m. 1992)

Glynn Russell Turman (born January 31, 1947) is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 coming-of-age film Cooley High, math professor and retired Army colonel Bradford Taylor on the NBC sitcom A Different World, and fictional Baltimore mayor Clarence Royce on the HBO drama series The Wire. He recently portrayed Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime series House of Lies.

Turman had his first prominent acting role at the age of 13 as Travis Younger in the Broadway play of Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr., Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961, he intensified his studies at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. Upon graduation he apprenticed in regional and repertory companies throughout the country including Tyrone Guthrie's Repertory Theatre in which he performed in late '60s productions of Good Boys, Harper's Ferry, The Visit and The House of Atreus. He made his Los Angeles stage debut in Vinnette Carroll's Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. An impressive 1974 performance in "The Wine Sellers" earned him a Los Angeles Critics Award nomination and a Dramalogue Award. The play was also produced on Broadway as What The Wine Sellers Buy. He won his first NAACP Image Award for his work in the play Eyes of the American.