Ted Lange

Available for Lectures, Film, Television, Directing,
Stage and Radio Appearances

Ted Lange
A Biography

“The duty of the Artist is to find his muse then let her rip.”

TED LANGE certainly exemplifies the Renaissance Man Theatre Award that he received from the NAACP in Los Angeles and the Heroes and Legends HAL Lifetime Achievement Award. A prolific actor of stage and screen, director, author, playwright of over 25 plays, and educator comprise the talents that have created a revered career and worldwide recognition. In 2018, he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame placed right in front of the main entrance to the famous Dolby Theatre.

One of his recent plays he wrote The Cause, My Soul, the Prequel to Othello, presented at the North Carolina Black Theatre Festival along with numerous other locations won the NAACP Theatre Award' Best Play of 2017. His other works include Let Freedom Ring was first presented at the Nakano Arts Center in Torrance, during Black History Month in 2015. The play revolves around the idea of four black men stealing the Liberty Bell in 1846. Lange also created an American trilogy, Lady Patriot, which deals with the Civil War.  His first play in the trilogy, George Washington’s Boy, which covers the American Revolution, was produced for the National Black Theatre Festival and received rave reviews. The second play, The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson, which tells the story of John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, was done as a reading at Stage 52 in Los Angeles.

An award winning theatrical director, Lange received the Artistic Director Achievement Award, as Director of an Original Play for his comedy Lemon Meringue Facade and the Dramalogue Award for Outstanding Directing of The Visit. Lange also received the Oakland Ensemble Theatre’s Paul Robeson Award and the James Cagney Directing Fellow Scholarship Award from the American Film Institute. Other highlights from his stage directing include: an interracial Hamlet starring Glynn Turman, an avant-garde version of Richard III, Driving Miss Daisy, a one man show - Big Daddy’s Barbecue starring Jeff Wayne and The Heart of Biddy Mason, a jazz musical which he co-wrote with noted Jazz musician Gerald Trottman.

Honored to be named a mentee of James Burrows, Lange’s Film directing career includes: For Love of Amy, Othello, Players at the Poker Palace, and Cody: An Evening with Buffalo Bill. His TV directing career includes: “Mr. Box Office,” “The First Family,” “Are We There Yet?,” “All of Us,” “Eve,” “Dharma & Greg,” “Moesha,” “Love Boat: The Next Wave,” “In the House”, “The Wayans Brothers,” “Starman,” “The Fall Guy,” “Mike Hammer,” “Fantasy Island,” and seventeen episodes of the original “The Love Boat”. His directing expertise also encompasses a pilot he co--created for NBC called “Big Daddy’s Barbecue”.

A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Lange has written over twenty-five plays and garnered multiple theatrical awards. Behind the Mask: An Evening with Paul Laurence Dunbar is Lange’s own one-man show, touring thus far to sold-out houses from Ohio State University to San Jose State. Four Queens - No Trump played to rave reviews in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Omaha, and Chicago and won NAACP Best Play award in 1997.  The Valley Theatre Awards nominated his play, Lemon Meringue Facade, in five categories and played Off-Broadway in New York at the New Perspectives Theatre. Another respected play, Soul Survivor, was staged at the National Black Theatre Festival at the 1996 Olympics and at the Lee Strasberg Institute. Evil Legacy: The Story of Lucretia Borgia was nominated by LA Weekly for Best One-Woman Show. Also written, directed, and produced by Lange was Born a Unicorn, a rock ‘n roll musical depicting the life of Black Shakespearean actor, Ira Aldridge. His staged work George Washington’s Boy appeared at numerous venues from the National Black Theatre Festival to the University of Florida in Gainesville. As a TV /film author, Lange has created over a dozen screenplays including the film “Passing Through” starring Cora Lee Day & Marla Gibbs and seven “The Love Boat” scripts.

Lange made his Broadway acting debut in the hit musical Hair and his theatrical acting careers spans over fifty plays including Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe, Christmas on the Rocks, I'm Not Rappaport, Graduating Fifth Grade, South Coast Repertory’s Piano Lesson, Sunshine Boys, Biloxi Blues, and a national tour of Driving Miss Daisy. He even portrayed Applegate in the musical Damn Yankees in MA. Lange was bestowed The Best Actor 2001 by the NAACP for his work in Louie and Ophelia. His passion for Shakespeare has led to the roles of Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Bottom in Midsummer’s Night Dream, and leads in Macbeth, King Henry VI, and Romeo and Juliet. Other credits include Othello, in which he directed and starred in the stage version at the Inner City Cultural Center.

As a star of the television classic “The Love Boat,” Lange’s ten seasons as Isaac Washington earned him global recognition. His television acting career also includes “Child of the '70s,” “Hotel Du Loone,” “Players at the Poker Palace,” “That’s My Mama,” “Mr. T and Tina,” and guest appearances on “TV Therapy,” “The Quarantine Bunch,” “Maron,” “Psych,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Are We There Yet?,” “General Hospital,” “Scrubs,” “Drake & Josh,” “Half & Half,” “The King of Queens,” “The Hughleys,” “Futurama,” “Boy Meets World,” “Malcolm & Eddie,” “L.A. Heat,” “The Love Boat: The Next Wave,” “Evening Shade,” “Family Matters,” “Martin,” “Weird Science,” “Platypus Man,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “227,” “The Fall Guy,” “Larry,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Fantasy Island,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show”  to name a few. Movies-of-the-Week include: ABC’s “The Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage,” “The Nearly Wasn’t Christmas,” “Christmas,” ABC’s “That’s My Mama Now!,” ABC’s “The New Love Boat,” ABC’s “The Love Boat II,” CBS’s “Larry” and as the Host on the TV mini-series documentary for the Netherlands called “I Love ‘70s.” He recently hit the reality TV genre running on “Celebrity Fit Club.”

Lange’s film credits include: Toomie: The Hungry Tumor, Blood Pageant, WRZ: White Racist Zombies, Steps of Faith, A Remarkable Life, Phil Cobb’s Dinner for Four, Who Show Mamba?, The Adventures of Umbweki, Senior Skip Day, Carts, Last of the Romantics, Dorm Daze 2, Uncle Tom’s Apartment, Gang of Roses, Is This Your Mother?, The Redemption, Sandman, The Naked Truth, Perfume, Penny Ante: The Motion Picture, Glitch!, Terminal Exposure, Record City, Friday Foster, Black Belt Jones, Blade, Trick Baby and Banana Moon which he also co-produced.

Lange was the 1997 Co-Chairman of the African American Steering Committee for the Directors Guild of America. He was also one of the guiding forces of the Directors Guild Fellowship Program, instituted to develop job opportunities for Women and Ethnic Minorities.

Lange was named an adjunct associate professor at the School of Cinema/Television at USC, where he taught a weekly course in film directing. In addition to this, he also lectures on Shakespeare and acting at high schools, universities and colleges across the nation. When asked about the diversity of his career, Lange states, “The duty of the artist is to find his muse, then let her rip.”

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