Mario Van Peebles was born on January 15, 1957 in Mexico City, Mexico. He is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous films. He is the son of writer, director and actor Melvin Van Peebles and German actress Maria Marx.

He wavered between a financial and an acting career before becoming a full-time actor with the 1984 film Cotton Club. In 1988, Van Peebles starred in a conformist TV comedy adventure series, Sonny Spoon, playing a glib private eye with a predilection for elaborate disguises; this brief series afforded him his first opportunity to direct. Three years later he made his film directing debut with New Jack City, a film widely praised by some as being a truthful, no-nonsense dissection of inner-city life, and widely derided by others as merely a slick outgrowth of the "blaxploitation" flicks of the 1970s.

Van Peebles played a major role in New Jack City, as he would in his subsequent Posse (1993), a revisionist western about a Utopian all-black community. Van Peebles' next directorial endeavor was Panthers (1995), a recounting of the Black Panther Movement that came under fire from several of the real-life activists depicted in the film despite the fact that Van Peebles steadfastly defended it as historically accurate.

In addition to making and starring in his own films, Van Peebles occasionally appears in the films of others. He had a starring role in Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and for his performance earned an NAACP Image Award. On television, Van Peebles has starred in a number of prestigious productions, including The Emperor Jones for PBS and The Pool Hall opposite James Earl Jones. For this latter role, Van Peebles was nominated for a Cable ACE award. For his work in Children of the Night he received a Bronze Halo Award.

He has also directed episodes of television series, notably those of producer Steven J. Cannell. For directing the ABC After School Special: Malcolm Takes a Shot, he received a nomination for a Directors Guild Award. In the late '90s, Van Peebles joined a growing trend and starred in an elaborate CD-Rom game for Sony called Solo in which he played an android superhero with a human learning capacity.

Credits by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmography

• Multiple Sarcasms (2008)
• Sharpshooter (2007)
• Hard Luck (2006)
• Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005)
• "Soul Food" (1 episode, 2004)
• Crown Heights (2004)
• Gang of Roses (2003)
• How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass (2003)
• 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003)
• The Hebrew Hammer (2003)
• The Street Lawyer (2003)
• "Robbery Homicide Division" (2 episodes, 2002)
• 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002)
• "Fiona" (2002)
• Ali (2001)
• "Rude Awakening" (19 episodes, 2000-2001)
• Blowback (2000)
• Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000)
• "Martial Law" (1 episode, 2000)
• Guardian (2000)
• Judgment Day (1999)
• Raw Nerve (1999)
• Killers in the House (1998)
• Mama Flora's Family (1998)
• Crazy Six (1998)
• Valentine's Day (1998)
• Love Kills (1998)
• Stag (1997)
• "The Outer Limits" (1 episode, 1997)
• Riot (1997)
• Los Locos (1997)
• Solo (1996)
• "Living Single" (1 episode, 1996)
• "Strangers" (1 episode, 1996)
• Gang in Blue (1996)
• Panther (1995)
• Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)
• Gunmen (1994)
• In the Living Years (1994)
• Full Eclipse (1993)
• Posse (1993)
• In the Line of Duty: Street War (1992)
• Stompin' at the Savoy (1992)
• A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story (1991)
• New Jack City (1991)
• "CBS Schoolbreak Special" (1 episode, 1990)
• "21 Jump Street" (4 episodes, 1987-1990)
• Blue Bayou (1990)
• Identity Crisis (1989)
• "Sonny Spoon" (1 episode, 1988)
• The Child Saver (1988)
• Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
• The Facts of Life Down Under (1987)
• Hotshot (1987)
• Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
• "L.A. Law" (4 episodes, 1986)
• D.C. Cops (1986)
• Last Resort (1986)
• 3:15 (1986)
• "The Cosby Show" (1 episode, 1985)
• South Bronx Heroes (1985)
• Children of the Night (1985)
• Rappin' (1985)
• Delivery Boys (1985)
• The Cotton Club (1984)
• Exterminator 2 (1984)
• "One Life to Live" (1968)
• The Sophisticated Gents (1981)
• Crosscurrent (1971)
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

Awards

•  NAACP Image Award Best Supporting Actor "Heartbreak Ridge" 1986