MALCOLM X ACTOR DIED AT 78

Albert Freeman Jr.

Albert Freeman Jr., the veteran actor who played Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s epic film, "Malcolm X," has died. He was 78.

He was confirmed dead by Howard University in Washington, D.C yesterday [Saturday in Nigeria].

Albert Freeman Jr. was born in San Antonio, Texas. His father was a jazz pianist and stage actor.

Albert’s career spanned film, stage and television

After ‘ Malcolm X’ Freeman later featured in other projects like 1995's "Once Upon a Time... When We were Coloured," in which he starred with Phylicia Rashad, and the Maya Angelou-directed "Down in the Delta" (1998), in which he starred with Alfre Woodard.

The actor also did memorable work in television. He played "Malcolm X" in miniseries "Roots: The Next Generations," drawing an Emmy nomination in 1979.He had drawn an earlier nomination, in 1970, for starring with Patty Duke in the influential telepic "My Sweet Charlie." He played a black New York lawyer who encounters a pregnant white Southern girl in rural girl while both are on the run.

He made his first television appearance in 1958 in an episode of "Suspicion,"

Freeman also won a best-actor Daytime Emmy for his work as Capt. Ed Hall on the soap opera "One Life to Live." (He also directed some episodes of the ABC sudser.)