E Pluribus Unum

If mainstream America remembers Gordon Parks at all, it remembers him as the director of Shaft. But Parks had a long and distinguished career in a number of other fields before he got to Hollywood.

Michael Wilmington:

Parks, who died Tuesday in his New York City home at the age of 93, was a true Renaissance man who had an astonishing array of gifts and talents. He excelled in many areas and lived an improbably full, inspiring and productive life.

That is an understatement: if Parks' life were grafted onto a character in a novel, we wouldn't believe it -- he'd be too large for life. But that was Gordon Parks for you.

Above all, he was a photographer, one of the legends of his profession. He was the first African-American staff photographer for Life magazine, and later became the first black to direct a major Hollywood movie.

Parks' perfect eye and sensitivity to light and dark revealed themselves in many other fields as well. He was a novelist, poet, journalist, composer of both film scores and classical music (including the 1989 ballet "Martin," about Martin Luther King Jr.) and even, for a while, a semi-pro basketball player.

All his great gifts however, especially his genius for photography and writing, came together in his work in film.

Parks once said, "I've known both misery and happiness. I've lived in so many different skins. It is not possible for one skin to claim me."

He was a giant and a huge influence on me. Rest in peace, Mr. Parks.

P.S. If you get a chance, read Parks' The Learning Tree and/or Choice of Weapons. The first is a novel (based on his own childhood) and the second is an autobiography.