Cast & creator
Dizzy Gillespie
Best known for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, Great Performances
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (/ɡɪˈlɛspi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer. Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge[2] but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality provided some of bebop's most prominent symbols. In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. AllMusic's Scott Yanow wrote: "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated [....] Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time". From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Also known as: John Birks 'Dizzy' Gillespie, John Birks Gillespie
64
film credits
10
television credits
66
1946–2024 · acting roles
7.2
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (74)
Showing 74 of 74 credits
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
1962
The Mike Douglas Show
Self
1961
Great Performances
Self
1971
The Dick Cavett Show
Self - Guest
1968
The Cosby Show
Mr. Hampton
1984
Le Grand Échiquier
Self
1972
The Muppet Show
Self - Special Guest Star
1976Olympic Gala
1984Bei Bio
Self
1983
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Self (archive footage)
2024
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Self - Musician (archive footage)
2019
Jazz Casual
Self - Trumpet
1961
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
Self (archive footage)
2021
Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President
Self (archive footage)
2020
The Harlem Renaissance
Self (archive footage)
2004
Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs
Self
1990
The Savoy King: Chick Webb & the Music That Changed America
Self (archive footage)
2012
Hello
Original Music Composer
1984
Movie Music Man: A Portrait of Lalo Schifrin
Self - Musician, Trumpet
1993
Michel Legrand, sans demi-mesure
Self (archive footage)
2018Cool
Self
The Beginnings of Bebop
Self
1981
Improvisation
Self
2004
What's Happening
Self
The Last of the Blue Devils
Self (archive footage)
1979
Charlie Parker: Bird Songs
Self (archive footage)
2022
Jazz Legends in Their Own Words
Self (archive footage)
2014The Hat
The First Border Guard (voice)
1964
A Great Day in Harlem
Self
1994
The Hole
(voice)
1962
Oscar Peterson: Music in the Key of Oscar
Self
1995Música para Sempre
Self
1980Duke Ellington: Love You Madly
Self
1967
Maurice Baquet, The Accorded
Self (archive footage)
2023Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time
Self (archive footage)
1992
Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
Self
1989
The Music According to Tom Jobim
Self (archive footage)
2012
Dizzy Gillespie
Self
1964
Amazonia
(voice)
1990
Monterey Jazz Festival 1975
Self
1998Smith, James O. - Organist, USA. 1. Die Europa-Tournee des Jazz-Organisten Jimmy Smith
Self
1966
Jazz Icons: Dizzy Gillespie Live in '58 & '70
Self
2006A Smattering of Spots
Music
1958
El invierno en Lisboa
Bill Swann
1991El invierno en Lisboa
Original Music Composer
1991
A Family Circus Easter
Easter Bunny (voice)
1982The Best Of Louis Armstrong: Satchmo At His Best
Self
2009Miles Ahead: The Music of Miles Davis
Self
1986Dizzy's Dream Band
Self
1982
Didn't We Ramble On
Narrator
1989All-Star Jazz Show: Live from The Ed Sullivan Theater
Self
2011
Voyage to Next
Father Time (voice)
1974Voyage to Next
Original Music Composer
1974
The Cosmic Eye
The Musicians
1986
Good Evening Ev'rybody: In Celebration of Louis Armstrong
Self
2008
Jivin' in Bebop
Self
1946
Jazz Club 2
2022Dizzy Gillespie - Live in Montreal
Self
2002
Date with Dizzy
Self
1956Date with Dizzy
Music
1956
Jazz session: Dizzy Gillepsie en concert au studio 104 - 1970
Self - trompettiste
2022
Six Short Films of Les Blank (1960-1985)
Self
1985
Jazz: The Only Way of Life
Self (archive footage)
2019To Bop or Not To Be: A Jazz Life
Self
1990
Dizzy Gillespie Quartet @ Berliner Jazztage 1974
Self
1974
The Jazz Ambassadors
Self (archive footage)
2018
A Night In Havana: Dizzy Gillespie In Cuba
Self - Trumpet
1989
Things to Come
Music
1953
Jazz Is Our Religion
1972Look at Life: Jazz All the Way
Self
1963
Dizzy Gillespie: Live at the Royal Festival Hall
Self
1989
A Supermarket in California
Music
2024
Brownie Speaks
Self
2014Second Chance: Sea
Original Music Composer
1977