Ted Ross Death
Ted passed away on September 3, 2002 at the age of 68 in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Ted's cause of death was complications from stroke.
When did Ted Ross die?
September 3, 2002How did Ted Ross die? What was the cause of death?
Complications from strokeHow old was Ted Ross when died?
68Where did Ted Ross die? What was the location of death?
Dayton, Ohio, USA
Ted Ross Birthday and Date of Death
Ted Ross was born on June 30, 1934 and died on September 3, 2002. Ted was 68 years old at the time of death.
Birthday: June 30, 1934
Date of Death: September 3, 2002
Age at Death: 68
Ted Ross - Biography
Theodore Ross Roberts (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002), known as Ted Ross, was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original 1975 Broadway production, and went on to recreate the role in the 1978 film version which also starred Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Nipsey Russell. Ross went on to appear in films including Police Academy, and on the television sitcoms The Jeffersons, Benson, The Cosby Show, and its spin-off A Different World. His final role was in the 1991 movie The Fisher King.
His nightclub exploits as a teenager were not very popular at home. He dropped out of Roosevelt High in 1950 and enlisted in the United States Air Force. Two years later at age eighteen, Ross entered an amateur night contest at the Top Hat bar on Germantown Street. Home on furlough, he sang a cover of Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow", won $5 that night and found his calling. After leaving the military, Ross worked his way from Great Falls, Montana, to a strip bar in Los Angeles as a singer and MC. There he landed his first stage role in Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Bigtime Buck White".
The musical began as a workshop in Watts and moved to New York City in 1968. He starred in The Wiz and other Broadway productions, such as Purlie, Ain't Misbehavin, and Raisin in the Sun. His first film was The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor. Films that followed included Ragtime, Amityville II, Police Academy, Stealing Home, and The Fisher King. One of the roles he is most fondly remembered for is that of Bitterman, Arthur Bach's long suffering chauffeur in the 1981 Dudley Moore hit, Arthur.
Ross was honored by Dayton’s Wayman Chapel AME Church, the Miami Valley Fisk University Alumni Club and by WROU-FM as a Black History Month Achiever. He suffered a stroke in 1998, and died from complications four years later at Good Samaritan Hospital, aged 68.
