 avery franklin brooks (born october 2, 1948) is an american actor, director and occasional singer. brooks is best known for his television roles as benjamin sisko on star trek: deep space nine, as hawk on spenser for hire and its spinoff a man called hawk, and as dr. bob sweeney in the academy award-nominated film american history x. ==early life== brooks was born in evansville, indiana, the son of eva lydia (nÃ©e crawford), a chorale conductor and music instructor, and samuel brooks, a union official and tool and die worker. his maternal grandfather, samuel travis crawford, was also a singer. when he was aged eight, his family moved to gary, indiana, when samuel brooks was laid off from international harvester. of gary, brooks has said: "i was born in evansville... but it was gary, indiana that made me." the brooks household was filled with music. his mother, who was among the first african-american women to earn a master's degree in music at northwestern university, taught music wherever the family lived. his father was in the choir wings over jordan on cbs radio from 1937 to 1947, and his maternal uncle samuel travis crawford was a member of the delta rhythm boys. "music is all around me and in me, as i am in it," brooks has said. brooks attended indiana university and oberlin college, and later completed his b.a., plus an m.f.a. from rutgers university in 1976, becoming the first african american to receive an mfa in acting and directing from rutgers. ==television career== ===spenser for hire: hawk=== in 1985, brooks landed the role of hawk on the abc television detective series spenser: for hire. hawk beca
1948_births African-American_academics African-American_male_actors African-American_male_singers African-American_television_directors African-American_theatre_directors American_jazz_pianists American_jazz_singers American_male_film_actors American_male_stage_actors American_male_television_actors American_male_voice_actors Audio_book_narrators Living_people Male_Shakespearean_actors Male_actors_from_Indiana Oberlin_College_alumni People_from_Evansville,_Indiana People_from_Gary,_Indiana Rutgers_University_alumni