Quick Facts
Biography
Albert Popwell (July 15, 1926 – April 9, 1999) was an African American stage, television and film actor with a career spanning six decades.
Born in New York City, Popwell started as a professional dancer before taking up a career in acting. Popwell made his professional debut on Broadway at age 16 in The Pirate.
Career
Popwell was featured on many television series, but is perhaps best known for his appearances in films opposite Clint Eastwood, whom he acted with in five films, starting with Coogan's Bluff (film) and in the first four films of the Dirty Harry series. Popwell was a wounded bank robber at the receiving end of Eastwood's "Do you feel lucky?" monologue from Dirty Harry. Popwell was a murderous pimp in Magnum Force, appeared as Big Ed Mustapha in the The Enforcer and as Harry's detective partner Horace King in Sudden Impact. He did not appear in the last film in the series, The Dead Pool, due to a scheduling conflict.
His final film role was opposite Sharon Stone in Scissors. He died eight years later, at age 72, from open heart surgery complications.
Selected filmography
With Clint Eastwood
- Coogan's Bluff (1968)
- Dirty Harry (1971)
- Magnum Force (1973)
- The Enforcer (1976)
- Sudden Impact (1983)
Other appearances
- Journey to Shiloh (1968)
- Search (1972)
- Fuzz (1972)
- Charley Varrick (1973)
- Cleopatra Jones (1973)
- The Single Girls (1974)
- Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975)
- Emergency! (episode: "905-Wild", failed pilot for spin-off, 1975)
- The Streets of San Francisco (episode: "Poisoned Snow", 1975)
- Sanford and Son (episode: "Sanford and Gong", 1976)
- The Buddy Holly Story (1978)
- Wonder Woman (episode: "The Deadly Dolphin", 1978)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (episode: "Cosmic Whiz Kid", 1979)
- The A-Team (episode: "The Out-Of Towners", 1983)
- Magnum, P.I. (episode: "Missing Melody", 1986)
- Who's That Girl (1987)
- The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989)
- Scissors (1991)