William Greaves
American documentary filmmaker (1926-2014) · United States · On the map · Directors · Died at 87
William Garfield Greaves was an American filmmaker and actor. Trained at the Actors Studio, he worked as a stage and film actor but became disillusioned with the roles available to Black performers, and transitioned into a career as a pioneering documentarian at the highest of the civil rights movement.
William Greaves is read about 314 times a day, in 6 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 10 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 152 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½Film, Director, Writer1988The Best of Black JournalFilm, Director1985
Frederick Douglass: An American LifeFilm, Director, Writer1981
Bustin' LooseFilm, Producer1980Black Filmmakers Hall of FameAward1976
Just Doin' It (A Tale of Two Barbershops)Film, Director, Writer1972
Nationtime: GaryFilm, Director, Writer1970Black Journal: 23; New-ArkFilm, Producer1968Black JournalSeries, Producer
Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle ClassFilm, 1968Director, Producer1964
Wealth of a NationFilm, Director, Writer1958Smoke and WeatherFilm, Director, Writer1949
Lost BoundariesFilm, Arthur 'Art' Cooper1947
Sepia CinderellaFilm, Patron1926Born8 October 1926People around William
Close ties
Filmography 40
126 credits on file
Television 2
Awards
About this person
He produced more than 200 documentaries, and wrote and directed more than half of these. He garnered many accolades for his work, including four Emmy nominations.
