Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson mean it when they say they’re in it for the long haul.
They’ve been married since 1980, and their daughter Zoe is a reality TV producer who has won an Emmy. LaTanya told PEOPLE that it wasn’t just loved that kept them together, but a promise they made.
“In the beginning, we always said that the most revolutionary thing Black people could do was to stay together and raise their kids with a father and a mother at the center because everyone likes to act like that’s not how African American families work, that it’s just kids being raised by women, which we know isn’t true,” said LaTanya. “In order to change that story, we decided to say, ‘We’re going to stick together no matter what, and we’ll figure it out.'”
They have it so figured out that they even work together. August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson was brought back to Broadway in 2022, with LaTanya Jackson directing and Samuel Jackson starring alongside John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Danielle Brooks, and Michael Potts. One of the producers is Washington’s famous actor father, Denzel Washington.
The Jacksons went on a date to the 2022 Tony Awards, where they walked the red carpet together and gave Take Me Out the award for best revival of a play. Samuel took a moment to talk about his wife on stage. He said that LaTanya will be “the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway.”
“My first job on Broadway was as an understudy 32 years ago in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. So I am thrilled to be coming back in September in a revival of The Piano Lesson — not as an understudy — this time directed by my wife LaTanya,” he said.
A well-respected actress in her own right, keep reading to find out more about Samuel L. Jackson’s wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
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About LaTanya Richardson Jackson
LaTanya Richardson Jackson was born and raised in Atlanta. She began acting when she was 15 years old. She went to Spelman College, which is the oldest private HBCU for women that is also a liberal arts college. She began acting in children’s theater and kept doing it until she graduated.
LaTanya told Variety in 2017: “I got to work with such brilliant actresses as Diana Sands on Macbeth.” “Many artists found Atlanta to be a friendly place to live. They called it “the Mecca of the South.”
LaTanya and Samuel met in Atlanta when they were both first years at Morehouse College. They started dating in 1970, and they were both in the Morehouse Spelman Players at the same time. Samuel told PEOPLE that LaTanya was a “city girl, an Atlanta girl,” and that she was “part of the whole Black revolutionary thing that was going on at Spelman.”
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According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Jacksons gave $5 million to Spelman in 2021. This was the school’s largest alumni gift in its history. In their honor, the theater, lobby, dressing rooms, and other areas of the center of the liberal arts will now be called the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center.