Johnny Sekka
| Johnny Sekka | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Lamine Sekka 22 July 1934 Dakar, Senegal |
| Died | 14 September 2006 (aged 72) Agua Dulce, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1959–1993 |
| Spouse(s) | Cecilia Enger (1964-2006, his death) (1 child) |
| Children | Lamine Sekka, Jr. |
Johnny Sekka (born Lamine Sekka, 21 July 1934 – 14 September 2006) was a Senegalese actor.
Born Lamine Sekka in Dakar, Senegal, the youngest of five siblings, his Gambian father died shortly after his birth. When he was still young, his Senegalese mother sent him to live with an aunt in Georgetown (now Janjanbureh) in the Gambia, but he ran away to live on the streets in the capital, then known as Bathurst (now Banjul). In the Second World War he found employment as an interpreter at an American air base in Dakar. He then worked on the docks. When he was 20, he stowed away on a ship to Marseilles, France, and lived for three years in Paris.
He arrived in London, England in 1952, and served in the Royal Air Force for two years, but then Caribbean actor Earl Cameron persuaded him to become an actor, and he attended RADA. He became a stagehand at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared on stage in various plays from 1958. He had a small part in the 1958 film version of Look Back in Anger, directed by Tony Richardson, who had seen him on stage. He took a leading role in the 1961 film Flame in the Streets, playing the Jamaican boyfriend of the (white) daughter (played by Sylvia Syms) of a liberal working-class trades unionist (played by John Mills). He lived for a period in Paris, where he met his wife, Cecilia Enger.
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