Taurean Blacque

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Taurean Blacque (born Herbert Middleton Jr. in Newark, New Jersey, May 10, 1941^[1]) is an Emmy-nominated American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Det. Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues. He also is a past national spokesperson for adoptive services, having been one of the first single black men in the United States to adopt a child.^[2]

[edit] Acting career

Before appearing on television, Washington trained and performed at the New Federal Theater in New York, a theater founded to provide opportunities to minorities and women.^[3] Early in his acting career, Blacque began making guest appearances in sitcoms such as What's Happening!!, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show, The Tony Randall Show, Good Times, and Taxi. In 1981 he joined the cast of the fledgling police drama Hill Street Blues, staying with the show throughout its run, which ended in 1987. While appearing on that show, he was nominated in 1982 for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to fellow HSB actor Michael Conrad, in the only year in which all the nominees in a category came from the same series. After Hill Street ended, Blacque moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to provide a better home for his children; in his new home, he has focused on theatrical work while making occasional guest appearances on television.

[edit] As adoptive parent

Blacque initially was asked to serve as spokesperson for the County of Los Angeles Adoption Services office though he had no adoptive children at the time. Upon looking into adoption, he was told that as a single black male, he was not eligible to adopt; however, he pressed on, eventually adopting ten children in addition to the two sons he already had. The adopted children included twin boys and a group of five children whose mother could not keep them due to her drug addiction. In 1989 he was asked by President George H. W. Bush to serve as a national spokesperson for adoption.^[2]