![]() ![]() They question Priest on the whereabouts of the guns without getting answers, which leads them to beat and lock him in a dark room. The officials suspect gun smuggling, but do not find any evidence when searching the wooden crates delivered. While arriving in the small fictional African nation, Priest is captured and detained by a few European officials representing the government. Sonko needs him to get the guns into his country without detection, which Priest agrees to do. He is able to acquire the guns needed by winning at cards against an regular associate. Returning to Rome from his visit, he decides to assist Dr. Having time to think and perhaps feeling a sense of guilt for his cocaine hustling days, Priest decides to visit Africa to see things for himself against the wishes of Georgia. Sonko, having learned some things of his background, presses upon him he has an obligation to help African people. Priest is not interested at first but Dr. ![]() Sonko is a revolutionary living in Rome also and would like Priest to assist him with supplying guns for his fellow countrymen to defeat colonialism in his country. Lamine Sonko (Browne) a native of a small African country. Through a mutual associate he plays cards with, he comes into contact with Dr. O'Neal is survived by his wife Audrey Pool O'Neal, and sister, Kathleen O'Neal.Priest (O'Neal) has retired from his former life as a cocaine hustler back in the streets of New York and now living comfortably in Rome, Italy with his lover Georgia (Frazier). He was cast alongside fellow blaxsploitation stars Pam Grier, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown and Richard Roundtree in the genre's tribute film Original Gangstas (1996) the film was a modest hit, and O'Neal made the rounds in a few more urban action thrillers, most notably his final film On the Edge (2002), co-starring rap and televisions star, Ice-T. Better still, as scholars and film fans rediscovered his performance in Superfly, O'Neal gathered some movie work again. His fortunes did brighten in the mid-'80s with television, earning semi-regular roles in two of the more popular shows of the day: The Equalizer (1985-89) and A Different World (1987-93). Sadly, O'Neal's fame (as well as the blaxsploitation genre itself), would inevitably fade, and by the decade's end, O'Neal would be co-starring in such B-films as When a Stranger Calls, and the Chuck Norris actioner A Force of One (both 1979). Unfortunately, his lack of experience showed as the poorly directed film lacked its predecessor's wit and pace, and proved a resounding commercial flop. O'Neal would try his hand at directing when he took on the sequel Superfly T.N.T. The film was a box-office smash, and O'Neal, looking slick and ultra-stylish in his big fedora hat, leather boots, flowing scarf, and floor length trench coat, became a pop culture icon of the "blaxsploitation" genre overnight. The producers of Superfly saw him in that production and cast him in the film's lead role of "Youngblood Priest". He came to critical notice in the off-Broadway production of Charles Gordone's Pulitzer Prize-winning No Place to be Somebody where he earned an Obie Award (the off-Broadway Tony) for his work. During his nine-year stint with the playhouse, he had roles in such varied productions as A Raisin in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire and Kiss Me Kate.Īfter moving to New York City in the mid-'60s, he taught acting classes in Harlem and performed in summer stock. After graduating high school in 1955, he joined the city's widely acclaimed Karamu House, an experimental interracial theatrical troupe. O'Neal was born on Septemin Utica, New York, but he grew up in Cleveland. Ron O'Neal, the handsome, athletic black actor who shot to fame in the '70s for his role as the Harlem drug dealer "Youngblood Priest" in the cult flick, Superfly (1972), died of cancer in Los Angeles on January 14th.
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