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Biography · Film & Television

William Greaves

1926–2014

United States

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Biography

William Garfield Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American filmmaker and actor. Trained at the Actors Studio, he worked as a stage and film actor but became disillusioned with the roles available to Black performers, and transitioned into a career as a documentarian at the height of the civil rights movement. He produced more than 200 documentaries, and wrote and directed more than half of these.

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Black heritage reference ↗

Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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