# Hollywood, give us some black professors/scientists/geeks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 2, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067 "2005-02-02T23:03:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/41 "2005-02-03T16:55:08Z")
Even though his obsessions were played for laughs, his skills in computer science, molecular biology, biochmistry, matter transmission, astrophysics, quantum theory, astronomy and nuclear science were without peer. Even though he’s not Hollywood, I want to be the first to mention BLOOM COUNTY’S Oliver Wendell Jones.
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### Author:  [@GorillaGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaGirl)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/42 "2005-02-04T03:21:48Z")
All from TV:
[ul]Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown on **CSI** [/ul]
[ul]Hill Harper as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes in **CSI:NY** [/ul]
[ul]Khandi Alexander as Chief Medical Examiner Alexx Woods in **CSI:Miami** [/ul]
[ul]Omar Epps as Dr. Eric Foreman in **House, MD** [/ul]
Movies? Not so much.
[ul]Sidney Poitier as Donald Crease in **Sneakers** [/ul]
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/43 "2005-02-04T21:38:07Z")
Also TV: in “Earth: Final Conflict” the genius computer hacker character Marcus ‘Augur’ Deveraux was black and ultra-cool.
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### Author:  [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/44 "2005-02-05T00:43:55Z")
How about \*\*Dr. Daystrom \*\* (creator of M5) from the original \*\*Star Trek \*\* series? He was a mite bit unstable, if I remember correctly, but a genius nonetheless. (Okay, M5 didn’t work out. But nobody’s perfect.)
(Side note: I can’t _stand_ Stephen King’s penchant for wise, mystical Black characters. I mean. Scatman Crothers(sp?) in **The Shining**? Fine. The mystical black mountain woman in **The Stand**? Well, I guess I could live with it. The tormented gentle-giant Jesus figure, Joe Coffey, in **The Green Mile**? Fabulous, by himself. But King’s repeated use of black characters like this begins to seem like a bizarre kind of backhanded compliment. “Black people are great – as long as they’re mythic/mystic figures firmly planted at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.” Weird!)
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### Author:  [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/45 "2005-02-05T04:07:04Z")
> [@GorillaGirl](#):
>
> [ul]Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown on **CSI** [/ul]
I hate to bring this back down to a base level and away from the point of the OP, but can I just put my vote in here for Gary Dourdan being the sexiest smolderer in suede pants I’ve ever seen?
And on an even worse tangent, who would play the live action version of Oliver Wendell Jones? Emanuel Lewis from 1985?
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2005, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-give-us-some-black-professors-scientists-geeks/288067/46 "2005-02-05T05:03:02Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Well, hey, in the original “Mission: Impossible” series, Greg Morris played Barney Collier, the ultimate technician.
And in the **Mission: Impossible** movie, **Ving Rhames** plays a computer geek/hacker.
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