Film Duke first became a familiar face to moviegoers in
Car Wash (1976), where he portrayed fierce young
Black Muslim revolutionary Abdullah Mohammed Akbar (formerly known as Duane). As the action-film-oriented genre became more popular, Duke portrayed a string of tough guys. He worked opposite
Arnold Schwarzenegger with a small role in
Commando. Then he acted alongside Schwarzenegger,
Carl Weathers and
Jesse Ventura in the scifi action thriller
Predator, followed by a role as a police chief in the 1988
Carl Weathers vehicle
Action Jackson.. He played a corrupt law enforcement agent in two films opposite
Mel Gibson—
Bird on a Wire (as an
FBI agent) and
Payback (as a police detective). Duke appeared as
Trask in
X-Men: The Last Stand, Washington in
National Security, Levar in ''
Get Rich or Die Tryin', Nokes in Bad Country and Caruthers in Mandy''.
Directing In the early 1980s, Duke accidentally secured a directing job on
Knots Landing, due to a secretarial or clerical error at AFI Conservatory. However, the producers were pleased with his work, and he was kept on, eventually directing 10 episodes of the show. This made him one of the first four black television directors. Duke then directed episodes of
Knots Landing's mother show
Dallas and its sister show
Falcon Crest (6 episodes). Next came action and cop shows
Hill Street Blues,
Miami Vice and
Starman. He credits the benevolence and humanity of people like
Larry Hagman and
Jane Wyman for his early TV directing success, while he occasionally heard derogatory remarks, and even racial slurs, from crew members, including the
Teamsters. Duke directed the TV movie
The Killing Floor in 1984. He began directing theatrical films in the 1990s with crime dramas
A Rage in Harlem (1991),
Deep Cover (1992) and
Hoodlum (1997). He also directed
The Cemetery Club (1993) and the
Whoopi Goldberg comedy sequel
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). For television, Duke directed the
A&E Network original film,
The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000). In 2007 he directed the historical reenactments in the award-winning PBS-broadcast documentary
Prince Among Slaves. Duke teamed with screenwriter
Bayard Johnson to co-produce
Cover, a 2007 film which explores the
HIV epidemic. He is set to direct
The Power of One: The Diane Latiker Story, a film based on
Chicago activist
Diane Latiker.
Television Duke made an appearance on
Kojak in 1976, as Sylk in the episode "Bad Dude", in the third season of the series. He guest-starred in the fourth episode of
Lost in its
third season as Warden Harris, in the episode "
Every Man for Himself". Duke had a starring role in the short-lived TV series
Palmerstown, U.S.A., produced by
Norman Lear and
Roots author,
Alex Haley. Although the series was critically acclaimed and won an Emmy, it ran for only 17 episodes in the 1980–81 television season. He guest-starred in
Battlestar Galactica remake in 2004, the
season two episode "
Black Market". Duke also appears in an episode of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a lawyer. In May 2017, Duke appeared on episode 6 of the first season of the
Outdoor Channel show
Hollywood Weapons: Fact or Fiction?. Duke discussed with host
Terry Schappert his time filming
Predator, his character Sgt. Mac Elliot, and what it was like to fire an
M134 Minigun. In 2018, Duke joined the
second season of
The CW superhero drama series
Black Lightning as recurring character Agent Percy Odell, a dedicated
A.S.A. government official.
Other work He has served on the board of trustees of the
American Film Institute, in the
Time Warner Endowed Chair in the Department of Radio Television and Film at
Howard University in
Washington, D.C., and as a member of the
National Endowment for the Humanities, appointed by President
Bill Clinton. In 2011 he directed the documentary
Dark Girls, which was nominated for an
NAACP Award, followed by 2015's
Light Girls. Duke is also the founder and owner of the Duke Media Foundation, which helps prepare young people for a career in all aspects of film, video and TV production. He became a teacher of
Transcendental Meditation in
Ethiopia in 1973 under the guidance of
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. ==Personal life==