Actor Cleavon Little Dies

LOS ANGELES - Cleavon Little, who played the black sheriff who took on a redneck town in the smash 1974 comedy "Blazing Saddles," died of colon cancer at his home yesterday, his talent agency said.

Little was 53, said Doug Smith, an assistant to Little's agent.

In addition to his starring role in the Mel Brooks comedy, the actor won a Tony award on Broadway and appeared regularly in the television shows "The David Frost Revue," "Temperatures Rising," "Bagdad Cafe" and "True Colors."

"Blazing Saddles," with its biting satire of racism, is considered one of Hollywood's top comedies. Comedian Richard Pryor was one of the authors of the screenplay.

Little played a palamino-riding railroad worker who teamed up with an alcoholic gunslinger (Gene Wilder) to save a town from a corrupt attorney.

Harvey Korman played the attorney, Brooks himself played a governor in cahoots with Korman, and Madeline Kahn did a parody of Marlene Dietrich.

Little's Broadway work included a variety of plays focusing on the African-American experience. He co-starred in "I'm Not Rappaport" by Herb Gardner, which originated at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and went on to Broadway success. He won a Tony award as best actor in a musical in 1970 for "Purlie."

He also was cast as the star in 1979's situation comedy "Mr. Dugan." But the show, about a fictitious black politician, was canceled before it was even shown, the victim of pressure from real black politicians.

Little's other film credits included "What's So Bad About Feeling Good," "Cotton Comes to Harlem," "Vanishing Point," "Greased Lightning," "Scavenger Hunt," "High Risk," "FM," "Fletch Lives" and "Toy Soldiers."