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LeVar Burton

File:LeVar_Burton_Photo_Op_GalaxyCon_Raleigh_2023.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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LeVar Burton

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Also known as Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr., Levardis Burton Jr., Levardis Burton, Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr.

American actor, director, and television host (born 1957)

Person · Open Library

Works
10

Top works

  • Christy Series 2 episodes on 1 cass.
  • This Beautiful Day
  • Howie & Wyatt
  • Kids Book about Imagination
  • The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Landstuhl, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host. He played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), and was the host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for 23 years (1983–2006). Burton received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award as…

Known for

  • One Night Only2026
  • Strip Law — (voice)2026
  • Weather Hunters — Flexspecs (voice)2025
  • Weather Hunters — Great Grandpa Wallace (voice)2025
  • Butterfly in the Sky — Self2024
  • To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager — Self2024
  • Trivial Pursuit — Self - Host2024
  • Star Trek: Picard - The IMAX Live Series Finale Event — Commodore Geordi La Forge2023
  • 100 Years of Warner Bros. — Self2023
  • Carol & the End of the World — (voice)2023

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1957

Member of

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
301
Total plays
1,709

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/LeVar+Burton">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · LeVar Burton

Quotes

  • I personally believe that education is the key to freedom. Actually, literacy is the key to freedom because you can educate yourself.
  • My life was changed forever. My first day as an actor, Cicely Tyson played my mother, Maya Angelou played my grandmother. I was 19, and they embraced me as a peer. They schooled me. They certainly taught me what it meant to be a professional, but they assumed that because I was there I belonged there, and they treated me as such. It was an extraordinary experience for a young person.
  • I wouldn’t want to be a young and emerging talent in today’s environment of the 24-hour news cycle and social media and a camera in everyone’s hand. I can’t imagine how much that adds to the burden of the journey.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton , ( 1957-02-16 ) February 16, 1957 (age 69) , Landstuhl , West Germany
Citizenship
United States
Alma mater
University of Southern California
Occupations
Actor, television host, director, author
Years active
1976–present
Spouse
Stephanie Cozart ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1992 ) ​
Children
2, including Mica
Awards
See Awards
Website
levarburton .com

via Wikipedia infobox

~18 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host. He played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), and was the host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for 23 years (1983–2006). Burton received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow.

His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001). Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his accomplishments in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “LeVar Burton” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (5)