Ruben Santiago Hudson

Early life

Ruben Hudson was born in 1956 in Lackawanna, New York, the son of Alean Hudson and Ruben Santiago, a railroad worker. He later adopted his mother's maiden name as part of his compound surname. His father was Puerto Rican and his mother was African American. He went to Lackawanna High school, earned his bachelor's degree from Binghamton University, his master's degree from Wayne State University and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buffalo State College.

Career

In 2003, he was the reader in Volume 13 of the HBO film, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. The series was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. He wrote Lackawanna Blues (2001), an autobiographical play in which he portrayed himself and some twenty different characters from his past, which was produced in New York at the Joseph Papp Theatre in 2001. He adapted it for a highly acclaimed, award-winning 2005 HBO film, in which the parts were played by different people. He won the Humanitas Prize and earned Emmy and Writers Guild of America Award nominations.

Santiago-Hudson appeared on Broadway in Jelly's Last Jam (1992), written by George C. Wolfe. He received the 1996 Tony for his performance in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. Santiago-Hudson's screen credits include Coming to America and Domestic Disturbance.

On television he has appeared on the daytime dramas Another World and All My Children. His work in primetime series have included The Cosby Mysteries, New York Undercover, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, Third Watch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and five episodes of Law & Order (which coincidentally stars Lackawanna Blues star S. Epatha Merkerson), among others. He starred as New York City Police Captain Roy Montgomery in the ABC series Castle until his character's death occurred in the third season finale. In 2007 he starred in a Public Broadcasting Service Nova documentary about the life of chemist Percy Lavon Julian.

In 2013, Santiago-Hudson won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director, an Obie Award for Direction, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for his work in the Off-Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson.

Honors

Personal life

Santiago-Hudson has four children: Broderick and Ruben III from previous relationships, and Trey and Lily from his marriage with Jeannie Brittan.

When he came to New York in 1983, he was known as Ruben Santiago. He tried to get a part at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and was asked if he spoke Spanish. (He does not.) When he wanted to work at the Negro Ensemble Company, "they laughed and said, 'We don't have Puerto Ricans,' " he said. So he added his mother's name, Hudson, and eventually won a part in "A Soldier's Play" at the Ensemble Company.