Gary Maxwell FICTION WRITING FICTION WRITING 274 STUDY Brian Stokes Mitchell born October 31 1957 is an American actor and singer A powerful baritone he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theater since the 1990s He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award a Drama Desk Award Outer Critics Circle Award and a nomination for a Grammy Award In 2016 he received the Isabelle Stevenson Award Mitchell won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Fred Graham Petruchio in the Broadway revival of Kiss Me Kate 2000 His other Tony nominated performances were in Ragtime 1998 King Hedley II 2001 and Man of La Mancha 2003 Mitchell s other notable roles include in Oh Kay 1991 Jelly s Last Jam 1992 Kiss of the Spider Woman 1993 Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 2002 South Pacific 2005 Les Mis rables 2008 Guys and Dolls 2009 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 2010 Oliver 2012 Camelot 2014 and Shuffle Along 2016 He is also known for his roles on television including as Dr Justin Jackson in the CBS medical drama Trapper John M D 1979 to 1986 Mitchell also had recurring roles on shows such as Frasier Glee Mr Robot The Path Billions and The Good Fight He took the role of Walt in the CBS sitcom Fam 2019 He received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album nomination for The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets in 2001 Early life and education Mitchell was born in Seattle Washington the youngest of four children of George Mitchell an electronics engineer and his wife Lillian n e Stokes a school administrator Mitchell grew up at various U S military bases overseas where his father was a civilian engineer for the U S Navy When the family settled in San Diego California he began acting in junior high musicals He did not attend college having begun performing professionally while a student at Patrick Henry High School although he did have private teachers in both acting and voice in his teen years He has said that he studied film scoring orchestration and conducting through UCLA Prior to Ragtime he was known professionally as Brian Mitchell Career Mitchell has a number of television and film credits including the role of John Dolan in Roots The Next Generations 1979 and a seven year stint as Dr Justin Jackpot Jackson on Trapper John M D from 1979 to 1986 Mitchell made several appearances as a celebrity panelist on episodes of 25 000 Pyramid and 100 000 Pyramid in the 1980s and was considered one of the game s better celebrity players helping a contestant win the 100 000 grand prize on the latter show in February 1986 Mitchell also participated as a celebrity panelist in four weeks worth of episodes of The Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour a short lived NBC game show that ran from 1983 to 1984 Mitchell first performed on Broadway in the musical Mail in 1988 with music by Michael Rupert and lyrics by Jerry Cocker winning the Theatre World award His Broadway credits include an all black revival of George and Ira Gershwin s Oh Kay 1990 Jelly s Last Jam 1992 based on the works of jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton and Kander and Ebb s Kiss of the Spider Woman 1993 He played recurring roles as Hilary Banks news anchor fianc Trevor Newsworthy Collins on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and supplied the singing voice of Jethro in the animated feature The Prince of Egypt 1998 He originated the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr in the musical Ragtime which opened on Broadway in January 1998 He received a 1998 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical He appeared in the 1999 revival of Cole Porter s Kiss Me Kate as Fred Graham Petruchio winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical He appeared on Broadway in King Hedley II in 2001 Tony Award nomination and Man of La Mancha in 2002 Tony Award nomination In 2002 he acted in Frasier as Dr Frasier Crane s upstairs neighbor and nemesis Cam Winston He played the title role in the 2002 Kennedy Center production of Sweeney Todd part of the Stephen Sondheim celebration He appeared in the New York City Center Encores staged concert productions of Jule Styne s Do Re Mi 1999 Bob Merrill s Carnival 2002 Kismet 2006 and The Band Wagon in 2014 On June 9 2005 Mitchell appeared in a concert version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall He starred as Emile alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush and Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis The production was taped and telecast by PBS in 2006 Of his performance Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times As for Mr Mitchell his place in the pantheon of romantic musical leads is now guaranteed Playbill Records released his debut solo CD Brian Stokes Mitchell on June 6 2006 Mitchell has also performed in a Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir later released as a CD and DVD entitled Ring Christmas Bells His second solo CD Simply Broadway was released October 30 2012 by CD Baby