Sad news: Actor Tony Todd who had roots — and performed — in Connecticut has died at the age of 69 in California.

I wrote several profiles on him — and saw his magnificent performance in the premiere of August Wilson’s “King Hedley II” in Boston — over the years. The last feature article was when he starred in TheaterWorks’ production of Dominique Morriseau’s “Sunset Baby.” Below this are several more. The first may have been in 1992, posted below the TheaterWorks piece

By FRANK RIZZO

Tony Todd has come home.

Todd, who was raised in Hartford and got his start in various theater groups throughout Connecticut, has created an impressive career in film and television, while also performing around the country in plays, including August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Athol Fugard’s The Captain’s Tiger, and his solo show Ghost on the House about the boxing champion Jack Johnson.

But his role as the former revolutionary who has returned to connect with his daughter after years in prison in Dominique Morriseau’s Sunset Baby, now playing at Hartford’s TheaterWorks, marks his first return to the Connecticut stage in decades—and to his boyhood roots.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of people from my past,” he says following the opening of the show, which plays through Sunday, Feb. 19.

The six-foot-five actor is best knowns for his chilling performances in horror and sci-fi films including 1990’s Night of the Living Dead (and its 2015 3D remake), the Hatchet film franchise, the title role in the Candyman franchise, and as William Bludworth in the Final Destination franchise and the Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Other films include Bird, Platoon, The Crow, and Lean on Me.

On TV he was the villain Zoom in The Flash and has had recurring roles on all three incarnations of Star Trek. His basso voice can be heard in countless animated films and characters in the gaming industry.

But he began in theater in Hartford in the late ’70s and early ’80s as a teenager performing at “pop-up” theater such ad the Free Me Truth Troupe (“helping incorrigible kids”), the former Protean Theatre on Pratt Street and especially the Artists Collective.

“The most important thing was when is when Jackie and Dollie McLean moved to Hartford and started that wonderful arts program,” says Todd, who was raised by his aunt and “had a wonderful childhood.[Jackie and Dollie] not only changed my life, but many others for generations.”

McLean was at the show’s opening night and Todd said “she was thrilled that one of her ‘children’ turned out to be a working actor.” Todd will be working at the Artists Collective and with youths in the Hartford area during the run.

Todd also attended UConn at Storrs, but he credits his stay at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford and at Trinity Repertory Theatre Conservatory in Providence for “lighting the fire under me.

“I knew I would be an actor or a writer for sure after going to the O’Neill and Trinity Rep and working with some inspiring teachers who taught me that it doesn’t matter when you make it, it’s how you make it.”

Because Todd had completed work on around a half dozen films he was able to take the Hartford gig.

Todd says Sunset Baby is particularly relevant now.

“The language is extraordinary and it features the music of Nina Simone. But more than that, it connects into the politics of protest at the moment.”

Todd says he was too young to remember the details of the early protests movement of the ’60s and ’70s so he began his own research into that volatile period.

“The beautiful thing about the Internet is that you can do your own dramaturgy with the stroke of a key.” He learned about the FBI files “where they were examining the Hartford Black Panthers and their work in establishing a breakfast program for kids here.

“Now young people are standing up, politically speaking, and hopefully we will be able to tap into that.”

“The last few days were extraordinary,” says Todd, referring to the Ghostlight events at theaters and the women’s marches across the country.

“It makes me feel that here where I’m supposed to be,” he says.

By FRANK RIZZO

Tony Todd’s latest acting endeavor could be considered a dream job — or one made for nightmares.

Todd, who was raised in Hartford, stars in “Candyman,” a new film opening nationally Friday, based on horror master Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden.”

In the horror film, set in Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing projects, Todd plays the title character, a tortured man from the distant past who is summoned back from the dead to terrorize others for the love that was denied him.

“What really got me was that this was a chance to create a gothic figure in the tradition of Frankenstein and Dracula — but with modern sensibilities,” he said recently over lunch in downtown Hartford.

Todd, who has appeared in such feature films as “Platoon” and “Lean on Me” and such wide-ranging television projects as the TNT film “The Last Elephant” and the syndicated series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” was embarking on his first national film promotion earlier this month.

The tall (6-foot-5), ruggedly handsome Todd says he also was impressed by the talents surrounding the film: director-writer Bernard Rose (“Paperhouse”), co-star Virginia Madsen and composer Philip Glass.

“If [Rose] could do what he did in `Paperhouse,’ ” says Todd in a honeyed basso voice, “then I figured we could have a shot at something.”

Todd also says Rose allowed him to create his own background for the hook-handed title character, whose personal history was not included in the Barker short story.

“And a lot of [my ideas for the character] were incorporated into the script,” he says.

Todd says he had some reservations about playing such a negative character, “but I didn’t see him as being an evil person. There’s a duality to him. That’s why I fought to give more of an understanding of who he was.”

It also wasn’t the easiest of shoots for him, he says. One scene has Todd swinging in a heavyweight harness. Another had him running through a bonfire. Still another scene has him covered with 30,000 bees.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” he says, adding that he went to a hypnotist to be more relaxed for these scenes. “And I only got stung once.”

Todd says he feels that he is in no immediate danger of being typecast.

“This is only my third quote-unquote horror film,” he says, following “Voodoo Dawn” (“which has a great video shelf life”) and the star role in the remake of the classic cult horror film “Night of the Living Dead” two years ago.

Todd, 37, was born in Washington, D.C., and raised from the age of 3 by his aunt Clara Ellison in Hartford’s North End.

The Mount Calvary Baptist Church and Boy Scout Troop 450 were major influences in his life as a young teenager, he says. Response to his work in public speaking and theater gave Todd his first bursts of self-esteem.

“But you have to be told you’re special first before you believe it yourself,” he says. “I was first told I was special by my aunt. The second person was my scoutmaster.”

When he was 14, Todd went to Japan with his Scout troop. “I came back to the North End and told all my friends that there’s a world out there beyond Hartford,” he says.

Todd described himself as “the neighborhood organizer.”

“I would make everyone do improv stuff,” he says. “When I came back from Japan, I even talked [my friends] into doing Kabuki theater. They thought I was nuts, but they went along with me — at least once.”

After graduating from Hartford Public High School in 1972, he went to the University of Connecticut at Storrs but dropped out during his second year. However, the college hired him to create a theater group for African-Americans.

Another major step was receiving a scholarship to the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford in the mid-1970s. Todd then studied acting at the Hartman Theatre in Stamford and Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, R.I.

In 1979, he returned to Hartford and formed the Free-Me Truth Troupe, a small theater company for teenagers. He also worked in independent theaters in the area, such as the Hole-in-the-Wall Theater in New Britain, the Protean Theater in Hartford and at Manchester Community College.

In 1983, he went to New York, where he found work in small theaters and television’s daytime drama “Loving.” It was at one of the small off-Broadway spaces, the West Bank Cafe, that producer-director Oliver Stone discovered Todd performing a one-man show, “Johnny Got His Gun.” Stone cast him as Sgt. Warren in the Oscar-winning “Platoon.”

Todd’s feature films include “Bird” by Clint Eastwood, “Colors,” “Enemy Territory,” “Sleepwalk,” “84 Charing Cross Road,” “Lean on Me,” “Night of the Living Dead,” “Keeper of the City” and “Excessive Force,” which is slated for a February release and stars Thomas Ian Griffith of Wethersfield.

On television, Todd was featured in the HBO film “Criminal Justice,” CBS’s “Love and Curses” ABC’s “Bride in Black” and Showtime’s “Keeper of the City.” He also had a recurring role in

“Jake and the Fat Man” and as K’urn, the Klingon brother of Lt. Commander Worf, in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Todd also has appeared on “Matlock,” “Father Dowling Mysteries,” “21 Jump Street,” “Loose Cannons,” “Kate & Allie,” “Night Court” and “MacGyver.”

Todd says he stays close with his aunt as well as some of his Hartford pals.

“It’s weird how your friends chart things. First it’s, `When are you going to get a job?’ Then as soon as things started to happen, it’s, `We’re proud of you. You represent us.’ Now, they tell you, `You’re just a guy like us,’ which is great. When I’m here, I love to hang out with my friends, and we just do simple and stupid stuff like go to jai alai or go out for a drink at the taverns.

“But the people who give me the best reality check are my children,” he says, referring to his 3-year-old son, Alex, and 1-year-old daughter, Arianna.

“[Fame] doesn’t matter to them,” he says. “They don’t know where the Pampers come from.”

Todd says he has a greater handle on his business affairs, with managers, lawyers and even development projects. “I feel like a corporation now,” he laughs. One of his big goals is to direct films, and he has several ideas for movies, including one involving a city not unlike Hartford, “a place that’s collapsing in on itself and then being reborn again.”

“But this is not going to be `Boyz N the Hood — Hartford,’ ” he says. “There are many other stories to be told in the neighborhoods of the city.”

And one of the best is his own