QEPD / RIP Shawn Elliott

The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) is sad to report the passing of actor-singer Shawn Elliott. A former HOLA member and a Friend of HOLA, he leaves His survivors include his wife of 26 years, actress Donna Murphy; brother Roland Elliott; three daughters Ivy Kaller, Justine McLaughlin, and Darmia Hope Murphy Elliott; and his grandchildren Christopher Kaller, Susan McLaughlin, Kaitlyn McLaughlin, Ava McLaughlin, and Lily McLaughlin, and great-granddaughter Cadence Kaller.

Born Eliezer Santiago Solís in Santurce, Puerto Rico, he grew up in East Harlem in Manhattan. He later attended Columbia University and the Berklee School of Music. He started his show business career as a singer, where he had a hit in Europe with a cover of Sir Lancelot's "Shame and Scandal in the Family" in 1965. Peter Tosh and the Wailers copied the arrangement Elliot used in preparing their own later cover of the song.


 

After some success as a singer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he turned to acting. A veteran of stage and screen, he is best known for playing Eduardo Fernández on the hit children's show "Ghostwriter", Detective Uribe in "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd", and Judge Joseph Rivera on several episodes of "Law & Order". Other film and television credits include Short Eyes, Beat Street, Crossover Dreams, The Dead Pool, Do The Right Thing, Arbitrage; "The Cosby Show", "Hunter", "Miami Vice", "A Man Called Hawk", "100 Centre Street", "CSI: Miami", "Hack", among many other credits. His theater credits include being an original cast member of the off-Broadway musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, as well as the Broadway musicals City of Angels and Marie Christine. In 2000, he was honored with the Rita Moreno Award for Excellence by the Hispanic Organization of Latin Artists (HOLA).

A Memorial/Celebration of Life for Shawn Elliott will take place on 11am on Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (between Sullivan and Thompson streets) in New York City.

Que en paz descanse / Rest in peace
Shawn Elliott