jdiwjosk: Godfrey Cambridge

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Godfrey Cambridge

Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge (February 26, 1933 - November 29, 1976) was an American comedian and actor. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by Time magazine in 1965 as "one of the country's four most celebrated Negro comedians."

Cambridge was born on February 26, 1933 in New York City, to Sarah and Alexander Cambridge, parents who were immigrants from British Guiana. His parents, dissatisfied by the New York Public School System, sent him to live with his grandparents in Sydney, Nova Scotia while during his primary school years. When he was 13, he moved back to New York and attended Flushing High School in Flushing, Queens.
In 1949 he received a four-year scholarship to study medicine at Hofstra College,which he attended for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in acting.