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Chattanooga Native Samuel L. Jackson Featured On ’60 Minutes’

  • Sunday, March 24, 2019
  • John Shearer
Parts of Chattanooga were shown Sunday night when veteran actor and former Chattanoogan Samuel L. Jackson was profiled on the longtime CBS News program, “60 Minutes.”

The segment — which can also be found online — looked at his longtime career as a Hollywood actor and TV pitchman following a number of years as a New York stage actor.

The part about Chattanooga shows shots of the city and some of his  family and childhood school pictures.
The profile said he was born near the Walnut Street Bridge, which family members told him had been the scene of lynchings, and that he was raised by his grandparents when his mother was in Washington, D.C., working a good government job. 

A brief video segment is shown — apparently on a cold winter day — with him and veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft talking along Fourth Street near where he lived on Lookout Street and where his mother resided for a number of years after he became famous. 

Although it does not say that he graduated from Riverside High, the piece does say he graduated from high school in 1966 and went to Morehouse College, where he became interested in civil rights and the theater.

The segment also shows him talking about some of the low periods in his life, including when he battled cocaine abuse before going into rehab. Not long after that, director Spike Lee asked him to be in the movie, “Jungle Fever,” and that started his Hollywood career and a sober life.

“60 Minutes” has historically said it only profiles people in the entertainment or sports world who have had some staying power and been accomplished for a number of years.
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