Fans of 1988’s “Coming to America” have been been eagerly awaiting its sequel, “Coming 2 America — The Return,” due for release March 5 on Amazon Prime Video after several setbacks. No doubt memorable roles in the original made it a cult classic, including that of Newport News’ native Frankie Faison. It was his first taste of big screen commercial success.
Faison admits he initially attempted to distance himself from the part he played, namely, that of the landlord who rents Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall a room in the dilapidated, vermin-infested Queens, New York apartment.
“You have to understand, I’m a classically trained actor, that was my go-to thing,” Faison says, somewhat sheepishly. “I didn’t want people thinking of me as a comedic actor when I was accustomed to performing low-key theatrical pieces.”
Faison’s career in theater, film and television spans nearly five decades. He credits the late pastor Sidney W. Williams Sr. of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church with instilling in him a love of performing.
“I can still see Pastor Williams standing in the pulpit and being so magnificent. He taught me so much about life and about myself,” Faison, 71, recalls.
Williams served as the chief spiritual leader of St. Paul AME on Chestnut Street from 1951 to 1966.
“He was comforting, of course, but it just struck me how he could captivate churchgoers so well,” Faison says. “He really commanded an audience. He was the first to teach me about the power of language and the power of acting.”
Largely as a result of Williams’ influence, Faison says he was “committed to the institution of religion and the church. Some of my fondest memories were appearing in St. Paul’s Christmas and Easter plays.”
Faison’s memories of growing up in Newport News are equally fond. “It was an amazing neighborhood where I was raised,” he says.
“It was segregated but in a positive way. There were so many black professionals, including black lawyers and black dentists, who you could emulate and be inspired by, just like Pastor Williams,” he explains. “As far as careers went, you were taught your potential was limitless.”
Faison would later study drama at Illinois Wesleyan University and New York University, where he graduated from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program in 1974. His first acting credits were in two Joseph Papp Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions of “King Lear” and “As You Like It” at the Delacorte Theater in New York City in 1973.
The actor’s other Broadway credits include his Tony Award-nominated turn in “Fences,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Getting Away with Murder” and “Bud, Not Buddy” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
The 71-year-old’s television and movie credits are equally well-known. Along with “Coming to America,” they include “Do the Right Thing,” “The Wire,” “Banshee” and “The Village,” among others.
In “Silence of the Lambs” he played Barney Matthews, the head orderly in the maximum-security wing at the Baltimore State Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Faison treats Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) with what he calls “the utmost respect.”
“I’ve heard that (“Silence” author) Thomas Harris felt very strongly about the Barney character, that he wanted him to be the voice of reason at the hospital. So in order to strike the proper balance, I treated Lecter with reverence,” Faison says.
Good thing, too: as played by Faison, Barney is the polar opposite of Dr. Frederick Chilton, the pompous administrator who is widely presumed to be murdered by Lecter at the conclusion of the film.
Faison holds the distinction of being the only actor who appeared in all four adaptations of the Thomas Harris books. Besides “Silence,” he appears as Barney in the film’s follow-up; “Hannibal,” its prequel; “Red Dragon,”” and an earlier iteration of Red Dragon” called “Manhunter.” In the latter, however, he plays a detective named Fiske investigating the murders committed by Lecter.
“It is such an honor to be part of that franchise,” says Faison, who recounts that he pleaded with the director, the late Jonathan Demme, to be in “Silence.” “I told him, ‘I have to be part of this film, I love the characters. And if you cast me, I’ll put it atop my resume.'”
In Faison’s most recent film performance, he played the title character in 2020’s “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain” — “one of the most physically powerful and demanding works I have ever appeared in.”
The film is based on the real-life police shooting of a retired African American U.S. Marine, whose LifeAid medical alert necklace was inadvertently set off, thereby leading to a standoff between Chamberlain and the police who were summoned to his house.
Faison describes his role as Chamberlain as “the epitome of who I am as a person and as an actor.
“I am a storyteller and, given the Black Lives Matter movement, this movie definitely makes a statement,” Faison he says.
“If I have done good work, people will remember the character I’m playing,” he adds “My acting will speak for itself.”
For nearly 50 years, it certainly has.
Douglas J. Gladstone is freelance writer and resident of upstate New York who is also the author of two books.
