By Erik Pedersen | Deadline
William Okuwah Garrett, film editor on Hollywood Shuffle and director of music videos during the “Black Pack” era of the early ’90s, has died. He was 73. His wife, producer-director Marlene McCurtis, told Deadline that Garrett died December 9 of complications related to kidney disease.
Hollywood Shuffle, the 1987 satire co-written, produced and directed by and starring Robert Townsend, was a comedic poke in the eye of Hollywood for its stereotyping of Black actors. With a budget of $100,000, the pic opened to critical acclaim and pulled in $5.2 million at the box office. It featured a series of vignettes and fantasies that Garrett wove into a film that inspired the Washington Post to write that it’s technical proficiency “should thoroughly embarrass those studios.”
The man friends called Okuwah went on to work on Mom and Dad Save the World, From a Whisper to a Scream, Deep Cover, Fear of a Black Hat and In Dangerous Company before transitioning into directing music videos. He started by helming jazz giants Stanley Clark and George Duke in their cover of Funkadelic’s “Mothership Connection.” Among his many videos were Dr. Dre’s title cut from the film Deep Cover — which featured the first appearance on a record or video by the rapper then known as Snoop Doggy Dogg — along with clips for songs by Kris Kross, Yo-Yo, MC Eiht , Gangstarr, Blackstreet and Kirk Franklin.
Garrett was born on April 17, 1949, in Edenton, NC. After graduating from Emerson College in 1980, he was accepted into the masters program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he wrote and directed short film The Deluxe.
As the millennium turned, Garrett left the industry for a new calling. He earned his masters in special education at Cal State Northridge and, with a group of fellow teachers, started a pilot high school called Leadership in Entertainment and Media Arts (LEMA) in L.A.’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood. Working with students who appreciated his knowledge, guidance, patience, kindness, respect and love, he often said it was his “most fulfilling work.”
Along with his wife of 41 years, Okuwah is survived by his sons, Lateef and Tarik Garrett; a brother, Kenny Garrett; sisters Levon Carol Brown and Phyllis Iziokhai; and his father, Percy Garrett. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in his name be made to the American Kidney Foundation or Planned Parenthood.