Carl Lumbly Biography

Fast Facts

• Worked as a freelance journalist and in public relations for the company 3M before turning to acting
• While doing a story on the Brave New Workshop Theatre for the Associated Press, wound up auditioning for a part; he joined the company and remained with them for two years
• Early theater work includes a 1976 San Francisco production of Athol Fugard's Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, which also starred Danny Glover
• In 1979, made his TV-film debut in Undercover with the KKK, and his feature debut in the Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz
• Met his future wife, Vonetta McGee, in 1984 when she was cast as the wife of his Cagney & Lacey character; they were married from 1986 until McGee's death in 2010