Gordone, Charles (1925-1995), became the first African American playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Gordone received the 1970 prize for No Place to Be Somebody (1969), his only successful play. The drama takes place in a dingy saloon inhabited by various lowlife characters in New York’s Greenwich Village. The central character is the Black saloon owner with ambitions to be an underworld leader as powerful as white gangsters. The tone is realistic and violent but Gordone injected several imaginative nonrealistic moments.
Gordone was born in Cleveland. In 1952, he graduated from Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles) and moved to New York City. There he worked as a waiter while he tried to establish himself as an actor. He appeared in several plays in New York, winning an award for his off-Broadway performance in Of Mice and Men in 1964. In addition to acting, Gordone directed about 25 plays. He was an instructor in English and theater at Texas A&M University from 1987 to 1995.
