King died of complications from emergency heart surgery on Thursday at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. The New Federal Theatre (NFT), his company dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black and other underrepresented artists, announced the news via Deadline.
King was 88.
Born on July 27, 1937, in Bladon Springs, Alabama, King grew up in Detroit and worked as an arc welder for Ford Motor Company. He later moved to New York City to attend Brooklyn College, where he earned an MFA in theater.
In 1965, King began a five-year tenure as the cultural director of Mobilization for Youth. He then founded the New Federal Theatre in 1970 to provide a platform for Black playwrights, actors, directors, and designers in the American theater industry.
According to Broadway World, King’s theater and workshops helped launch the careers of numerous playwrights, including Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka, J.e Franklin, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, and Ron Milner.
The New Federal Theatre, which will remain known as Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre, counts among its veterans such icons as Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Chadwick Boseman, Robert Downey Jr., and Phylicia Rashad.
King was the subject of Juney Smith’s documentary, The King of Stage: The Woodie King, Jr. Story, and TCG’s Legacy Leaders of Color video project. Often called the “Renaissance Man of Black Theater,” King entered the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2012. He also earned a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre in 2020.
King is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Van Dyke; his three children, Geoffrey King, Michael King, and Michelle King Huger, whom he shared with his ex-wife, Willie Mae Washington; and five grandchildren.