Blair Underwood, a handsome actor with a charitable heart, is one of the actors who has had a successful career in film, television, and stage acting and has also excelled as a film director.
The Grammy-winning Hollywood star is known for his portrayal of recalcitrant lawyer Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama L.A. Law. He played the role for seven years and won a Golden Globe Award for his performance. Since 1985, when he began his acting career, to this day Underwood has received numerous recognitions for his talent, including many nominations for the Golden Globe Award, NAACP Image Awards, and a Grammy Award, which he later won. Some of his most recent appearances in film and television have been with agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Good Wife, Quantico, and The Trip to Bountiful, among others.
Who Is Blair Underwood? – Bio and Age
He is an American actor who was born in Tacoma, Washington on August 25, 1964. His parents – Marilyn Ann Scales (mother), an interior designer, and Frank Eugene Underwood, Sr. (father), a colonel in the United States Army, named him Blair Erwin Underwood at birth. As a child of a soldier, Blair Underwood grew up on bases and army posts both in the United States and in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his high school education at Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia, after which he attended the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He made his film debut in Krush Groove, but his appearance on the Cosby Show in 1985 led to better days for the actor. This appearance earned him a brief appearance on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, where he played Bobby Blue, but the bigger picture came when he was cast for the television series L.A. Law and stayed on the popular series from 1987 to 1994.
His film career boasts outstanding performances in Just Cause (1995), Set It Off (1996), Deep Impact (1998), Rules of Engagement (2000), and a host of other films.
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Also in 2000, he was cast as the main character in the short-lived television series City of Angels and later played a guest role in the HBO series Sex and the City (four episodes). The following year he portrayed Roger De Souza in NBC’s LAX and became famous for two years for his role in The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-2010) opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In 2007 he made a guest appearance in an episode of the NBC series Law & Order: Special Unit for Victims. He later received a Golden Globes nomination in 2009 for his portrayal of Alex in the first season of the HBO series In Treatment.
To date, Blair Underwood has won three NAACP Image Awards for his achievements in Rules of Engagement, L.A. Law, City of Angels, and many others. Aside from movies, Underwood has also tried his hand at writing. As proof of his value as a writer, he became co-author of the novel Casanegra: A Novel by Tennyson Hardwick in 2007, in collaboration with Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due. In the same year, he landed a place on TV Guide’s list of “most influential faces of the 1990s”.
Net Worth
After more than three decades in the film industry, the actor had more and more success until today. With his involvement in high-profile films and other engagements, it is no surprise that Blair Underwood’s net worth has risen to as much as $8 million.
Family – Who is Blair Underwood’s Wife?
Blair Underwood is married to Desiree DaCosta, who was an assistant to actor Eddie Murphy, but due to her private lifestyle, not much is known about her family background, early life, and educational history.
Nevertheless, we can confirm that Blair married Desiree on September 17, 1994, and their union produced four children, Paris, Brielle, Blake, and Lexi Underwood. The couple lives happily with their children.
Other Facts About Blair Underwood
In the year 2000, the good-looking actor made it onto the list of the “50 Most Beautiful People”.
According to the results of his DNA test, Blair is a descendant of the Babungo people of Cameroon, while further genealogical research has revealed that his African ancestors are actually descended from the Bamum, Brong, and Igbo ethnic groups of West Africa.
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Blair Underwood is committed to humanitarian causes and works with several charities. His activities with the Los Angeles Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association earned him the 1993 Humanitarian Award. Through his clinic in Washington, he also worked with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and was a spokesperson for YouthAIDS in 2003 along with Asley Judd.
He plays the role of a trustee for the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles. The company is a non-profit theater group founded by Danny Glover that focuses on plays about the black experience.
Blair Underwood met former US President Barack Obama when he was doing research at Harvard Law School for his role in the Los Angeles Law School. At that time Obama was the president of the Harvard Law Review.
During his campaign for the White House Obama had the full support of Blair Underwood, who even spoke at his campaign rallies.