Ben Vereen Net Worth

Ben Vereen's Quotes

• If we plant the right seeds, tomorrow will be better. If you put out good things, then you'll get good things back. That's part of our responsibility as entertainers.
• Everyone I've worked with has been good. You learn from the good, what's good, and you learn from the bad what not to do.
• Live stage is being made as you go along. You feel the energy. There's nothing like a live audience.

Interesting Facts about Ben Vereen

1. Tony Award winner for "Pippin"
2. He was understudy for Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1964 Broadway musical "Golden Boy".
3. Was named as "King of Brooklyn" at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival in 1985
4. In 1987 his daughter, Naja, was killed in a car accident at the age of 16.
5. Is the godfather of singer/dancer/actor Usher.
6. 1 son, Ben, with first wife. 4 daughters (Kabara, Malaika, Naja and Karon) with current wife.
7. Won Broadway's 1973 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Pippin." Was nominated the year before, in 1972, as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for "Jesus Christ, Superstar."
8. In June of 1992, he suffered a stroke following a minor car accident in which he hit his head on the steering wheel earlier that day. He recovered and after extensive physical and occupational therapy, was able to dance again.
9. Graduated from the New York's High School of the Performing Arts
10. Of modest beginnings, his father James was a factory worker and mother Pauline a maid and wardrobe mistress.
11. Played the character of E.L. "Tenspeed" Turner in the unrelated television shows Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980) and J.J. Starbuck (1987), both created by Stephen J. Cannell.
12. Ben met first wife Andrea Townsley when they were young and singing together at her father's Brooklyn church in the gospel choir. The marriage, which produced son Ben Jr., lasted only a few years. Andrea is now a pastor at her late father's church.
13. Ben's second wife Nancy Bruner was a dancer in the London production of "Golden Boy". Ben was Sammy Davis Jr.'s understudy at the time.
14. Ben is an ordained minister.
15. Ben's high school classmates were Glynn Turman, Michael Peters, and Lester Wilson, to name a few at the Performing Arts.
16. In addition to starring in, Ben was also the acting coach on the movie Idlewild (2006) for such performers as André 3000 (aka Andre 3000), Terrence Howard and Paula Patton.
17. When he was 21 years old, he learned while applying for a passport that he was adopted and that his birth name was Benjamin Augustus Middleton. It took many decades before he traced his mother, Essie May Middelton (Pearson), already deceased. However, he did meet his blood family, including an older sister living in New Haven, Connecticut.
18. Born in Laurinburg, North Carolina.
19. His Grandson Darryl is a Linebacker for the University of Tennessee Volunteers Football team.
20. Although he played Georg Stanford Brown's father in Roots (1977), he is more than three years Brown's junior in real life. Similarly, he played the son of Leslie Uggams, who is likewise three years his senior, in the same production.