Melvin Van Peebles, iconic Black actor-director-writer, dies at the age of 89

Melvin Van Peebles, an actor, playwright, filmmaker, novelist, and composer, died at 89 in his home in Manhattan with his family by his side, reports confirm.

The Criterion Collection, a box set of Van Peebles' essential films next week, informed his fans and the media on behalf of his family. Peebles breathed his last on September 21.

The independent artiste left his mark on art and culture with his writing, direction, among others talented works, but his most successful stint to this date remains his 1971 film 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'.

In the 70s, this film became one of the highest-grossing indie movies of all time and even started a dialogue around blaxploitation. The political statement that Peebles had made through this movie remains relevant even to this day.

"Dad knew that Black images matter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth? We want to be the success we see, thus we need to see ourselves being free. True liberation did not mean imitating the colonizer's mentality. It meant appreciating the power, beauty, and interconnectivity of all people," his son Mario Van Peebles, actor and director himself, reportedly said in a statement.

Van Peebles launched his artistic career as a writer, publishing his first book 'The Big Heart' in 1957. From writing, he had then moved on to filmmaking.

Van Peebles then traveled to Europe, eventually settling in France. He made his short film 'Les Cinq Cent Balles' (500 Francs) there and worked as an investigative journalist for France Observateur, which then led him to become a columnist for the humor magazine Hara-kiri.

In 1965, Melvin Van Peebles became the editor-in-chief of the French edition of Mad magazine.

In total, Van Peebles published four novels, a number of short stories, and wrote the play 'La Fête à Harlem', which was later released as a novel.

Van Peebles debuted his first feature film, 'The Story of a Three-Day Pass', based on a novel by the same name.
The film won award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and got the attention of Hollywood producers, that opened his door to his studio debut with 1970-released 'Watermelon Man'.