Zakes Makgona Mokae was a South African-born American actor. Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moved to Great Britain in 1961, and to the United States in 1969. He turned to acting at the same time as playwright Athol Fugard was emerging. The two worked together on Fugard's first international success, The Blood Knot, from 1961, a two-hander set in South Africa about brothers with the same mother but different fathers; Zach is dark skinned and Morris is fair skinned. Later Mokae worked with Fugard on another major international success Master Haroldand the Boys, for which Mokae... won the 1982 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play. The play was filmed for television in 1985 with Mokae and Matthew Broderick. In 1993 Mokae was nominated for a second Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play for The Song of Jacob Zulu by Tug Yourgrau. His major films are split between anti-apartheid films such as A Dry White Season, Cry Freedom and A World of Strangers, and cult horror films such as Dust Devil, The Serpent and the Rainbow and Vampire In Brooklyn, the latter two was directed by horror icon Wes Craven.
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| Birthdate: | August 5, 1934 |
| Birthplace: | Johannesburg |
| Date of death: | September 11, 2009 |