William Harrison Gunn (July 15, 1934 – April 5, 1989) was an American playwright, novelist, actor and film director. His 1973 cult classic horror filmGanja & Hess was chosen as one of ten best American films of the decade at the Cannes Film Festival, 1973.[1][2][3] In The New Yorker, film critic Richard Brody described him as being "a visionary filmmaker left on the sidelines of the most ostensibly liberated period of American filmmaking."[4] Filmmaker Spike Lee had said that Gunn is "one of the most under-appreciated filmmakers of his time."[5]
Gunn's drama Johnnas won an Emmy Award in 1972.[6]
Career
A native of Philadelphia, Gunn wrote more than 29 plays during his lifetime. He also authored two novels and wrote several produced screenplays. In 1950, Gunn studied acting with Mira Rostova in New York's East Village.[5] In 1954, he played a role in the Broadway production of The Immoralist with James Dean. Along with Dean, he joined a social circle that included Montgomery Clift, Eartha Kitt, and Marlon Brando.[7] Gunn shared a house in Nyack, New York with Sam Waymon, brother of singer Nina Simone, who also wrote the musical score for Ganja & Hess.[8] Gunn's directorial debut would have been Stop! (1970), which was funded by Warner Bros. under the plan of being the second studio film directed by an African American. It was intended as a drama involving two couples becoming involved with each other within homosexual and interracial sexual contact alongside surreal undertones. The film was shelved by the studio before release, and the studio later claimed they did not have the print in their archives. A 35mm print was shown at a retrospective upon Gunn's death, and a VHS copy of the film exists (found by Jack Hoffmeister, co-star of the film).[9] He was also an advocate and friend of filmmaker and writer Kathleen Collins, playing a role in her film Losing Ground.[7] He died when he was 54 years old from encephalitis at a Nyack, New York hospital the day before his play The Forbidden City opened at the Public Theater in New York City.[10]
In 2021, an exhibition entitled "Till They Listen: Bill Gunn Directs America", dedicated to the work and legacy of Bill Gunn, was shown at the New York gallery Artists Space. The program series was organized by Gunn's artistic collaborators and scholars including, Hilton Als, Jake Perlin, Sam Waymon, Nicholas Forster, Awoye Timpo, Chiz Schultz, and Ishmael Reed.[11] In 2021, Timpo adapted Gunn's play Black Picture Show for film in the form of a staged reading.[12]
Bibliography
Plays
Marcus in the High Grass (1959) – produced by Theatre Guild.
Johnnas (1968) – produced in New York City at Chelsea Theatre.
"Gunn, Bill." Mitchell, Verner D, and Cynthia Davis, eds. Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. p. 147-148.
Ostrom, Hans. "Bill Gunn", in Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey (eds), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishers, 2005. Volume II, 683.
