Kevin Hooks was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Yvonne, a state employee, and
Robert Hooks, a director and actor who starred in many films in the 1970s. Kevin's nickname among his friends is "King Royal". Hooks lived in
Southwest, Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s. He attended
Potomac High School in
Oxon Hill,
Maryland. When he was still 10, Kevin starred in the acclaimed
J.T., a 1969 episode of the ''CBS Children's Hour'' about a sensitive Harlem youth who befriends a sick cat. Written by
Jane Wagner, it was a
Peabody Award winner. Hooks appeared in the hit 1972 movie
Sounder as the pre-teen elder son of
Paul Winfield's and
Cicely Tyson's characters, providing the point of view of the film. He held the story together as a boy thrust into being "man of the family" on a sharecropping farm during the Depression. The adults were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress
Oscars respectively for their performances. Hooks won a role in the last film directed by
Gordon Parks Jr.,
Aaron Loves Angela (1975). Set in contemporary Harlem at New York's grittiest and most depressing ebb, that film was regarded as a "
blaxploitation" version of
Romeo and Juliet, using African-American and Puerto Rican ethnicity in lieu of medieval families. While playing a withdrawn teenager, Hooks created electricity opposite the 15-year-old
Irene Cara.
Jose Feliciano in a bit part and a little comic relief lighten the grimness, as the young lovers encounter nothing but intolerance, and the secret location where they meet becomes the site of a dangerous drug deal. The movie was popular locally and praised by fans, but widely considered a weakly plotted failure. Hooks went on to portray high school basketball player Morris Thorpe in the successful TV series about high school basketball,
The White Shadow, which ran from 1978 to 1981. Morris Thorpe was reportedly voted one of America's 100 favorite characters in the history of television. In 1986, he starred in the short-lived
ABC sitcom ''
He's the Mayor''. ==Director roles==