Avery Brooks

Avery Brooks Headshot

Actor • Director • Singer

Birth Date: October 2, 1948

Age: 75 years old

Birth Place: Evansville, Indiana

This tenured faculty member of Rutgers University's drama department enjoyed a varied performing career singing jazz, acting in Shakespeare and appearing in occasional regional and off-Broadway ventures when wide popular success on TV in the 1980s arrived as he approached middle age. With his booming voice, piercing gaze and forthright manner, Brooks made a galvanizing sidekick of sorts for Robert Urich as the bald-pated, rather mysterious Hawk on the popular ABC detective drama, "Spenser: For Hire" (1985-88). When that show went off the air Brooks continued for a season with his own spinoff series, "A Man Called Hawk" (1989).

Brooks's stage career augmented his appearances on the small screen. His proud, imposing presence made him an excellent choice to play controversial actor-singer Paul Robeson in several biographical dramas, as well as a role Robeson himself was famous for, Othello. When he agreed to play Commander Benjamin Sisko on the third "Star Trek" series, "Deep Space Nine," Brooks knew that he would be subject to careful scrutiny from scores of Trekkers who, for varying reasons, had idolized William Shatner and Patrick Stewart as other, earlier Trek commanders. Brooks, though, deftly brought to bear his own brand of quiet authority to Sisko, in charge of a remote outer space outpost.

Credits

AFL Bite

Actor
Show
2022

NRL Bite

Actor
Show
2022

Drain the Oceans: Best of

Narrator
Show
2018

Mysteries of Ancient China

Actor
Movie
2016

The Captains Close-Up

Guest
Show
2013

Rescuing the River: The Raritan

Narrator
Show
2011

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots

Narrator
Movie
2010

15 Minutes

Actor
Leon Jackson
Movie
2001

Walking with DinosaursStream

Guest Star
Narrator
Series
1999
100%

The Big Hit

Actor
Paris
Movie
1998

American History XStream

Actor
Bob Sweeney
Movie
1998
84%

Africa's Elephant Kingdom

Narrator
Movie
1998

The Greatest Places

Narrator
Movie
1998

The Living Edens

Narrator
Show
1996

Spenser: A Savage Place

Actor
Hawk
Movie
1995

Spenser: The Judas Goat

Actor
Hawk
Movie
1994

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStream

Actor
Capt. Benjamin Sisko
Series
1993
91%

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStream

Director
Series
1993
91%

The Ernest Green Story

Actor
Rev. Lawson
Movie
1993

Spenser: Ceremony

Actor
Hawk
Movie
1993

Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes

Actor
Hawk
Movie
1993

A Man Called Hawk

Actor
Hawk
Show
1989

Trackdown

Host
Show
1988

Roots: The Gift

Actor
Cletus Moyer
Movie
1988

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Actor
Uncle Tom
Movie
1987

Spenser For HireStream

Actor
Hawk
Series
1985

Spenser: For Hire

Actor
Hawk
Movie
1985

Half Slave, Half Free

Actor
Solomon Northup
Movie
1984