Elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1987, Marvin Gaye in the last year of his life commanded “center stage” and held it with force but without effort; and with his death, Gaye’s legend was born, as interest in his life reawakened anew.
The evolution of Marvin Gaye’s genius is as worthy of a birth-to-death biopic as the one Ray Charles and Johnny Cash had received in recent years—to say nothing of Bobby Darin.
But two films on Gaye could be too many; and with only 25% of mainstream moviegoers under the age of consent who even heard of the man from listening to “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”—an interesting life, tragic death and great music won’t be enough for producers and their financiers to guarantee “butts in the seat” in order to turn a profit.
The first of the two proposed film projects to pass the post will get the audience. But for either movie to succeed, the story by narrative design must focus on a finite pivotal moment in the singer’s life: The death of Tammi Terrell, for instance, is the best example for the movie MARVIN (perhaps, Inner City Blues would be the better title) which led the singer to record “What's Going On” together with Motown mogul Berry Gordy’s refusal to release the LP; Gordy later relented and the album becoming Gaye’s definitive work.
In the case of SEXUAL HEALING, Gaye’s decline and exile to Europe followed by a comeback with the biggest-selling recording of his career is the right idea.
They say it takes “three” to make a trend; and with Jamie Foxx and Joaquin Phoenix successfully plumbing the biographies of Ray Charles (RAY, 2004) and Johnny Cash (WALK THE LINE, 2005) respectively, Hollywood learns from its own history. Music “bio-pics” are a hot genre, if done right.
But two movies based on the same subject gives the “second” film in release less than a chance of any real success. For now, the situation in the film industry will remain “fluid” for some time to come largely due to Hollywood’s general aversion to bio-pics of legendary musicians. Those that do get made are privileged, and are among the rarest exceptions.
In May, 2006, veteran unit still photographer D Stevens announced plans for a motion picture based on the life and legacy of Marvin Gaye, which would incorporate 24 of the soul singer’s songs into a script written by Robert Scharrer under the title: MARVIN—THE LIFE STORY OF MARVIN GAYE, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Stevens would direct the movie.
Producer Duncan McGillivray said the $40 million production would, in six months, begin filming in Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles. It didn't happen.
D Stevens, broadcast journalist, photojournalist, photographer and filmmaker in early 1970 worked as Public Affairs Director for KPFK-FM, winning a Golden Mike award for exposing conditions at California’s Soledad Prison and became a cause célébre of the so-called “Soledad Brothers”. Stevens became a photojournalist for Newsweek International in London covering global hot-spots, including Northern Ireland and Uganda. His work has appeared in many international magazines and books including the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the book Songs of My People published by Time/Warner-Little Brown.
Returning to the U.S. in the late 1980’s, Stevens became a commercial photographer in New York and later moved to Los Angeles, freelancing for TIME Magazine, becoming a member of the Camera Guild (Local 600) and working as a still photographer for many major motion pictures that include BOYZ N THE HOOD, MENACE II SOCIETY, WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT and commissioned to do many Hollywood Motion Pictures Posters.
Stevens wrote and directed the independent film THE PET (2006)—and, as mentioned, had been attached in 2006 to do a major motion picture on the legendary Marvin Gaye. But by January of the following year, Producer Stevens filed suit, seeking legal redress, demanding payment for his work on the film. (D Stevens v. Film by Humans Production Company LLC)
Meanwhile, another project based on the post-Motown years of Marvin Gaye and his final days was in pre-production and scheduled to start filming May 2006, independently financed and scheduled to shoot in Hungary and Germany.
Lauren Goodman, a graduate of the University of Southern California, School of Cinema Television, wrote and directed A LAST GOODBYE (1995), to date her only feature film credit. Much like this "mock up" image shown here, the filmmaker's résumé is a virtual ghost town. She has been quoted saying: “More than just being the voice of a generation, Marvin Gaye proved to be its very heartbeat. As a filmmaker, I was drawn to tell the story of a human being who was never fully realized, one with faults and foibles and an uncommon grace expressed every time he picked up the microphone.”
The film originally intended to cover Gaye’s entire music career, the focus shifted to his final years when rights to the singer’s Motown-produced recordings were not secured. None of the songs from 1962 until Gaye left the company, roughly 18 years later, will be featured. “What’s Goin’ On?” and “Let’s Get It On” for which the singer is universally recognized and remembered (but controlled by EMI Music Publishing) will not be heard in the film. However, financing for SEXUAL HEALING fell through, so the film didn’t happen.
A variety of moviemakers have attempted to dramatize the career of Marvin Gaye, each project eventually wandering the wilderness of Development Hell. The constancy of change, never unexpected in the film industry, is playing a key role that will determine the fate for both of these projects while in pre-production. Both projects will certainly feel the deep impact pummeling the motion picture industry that continues to reel from the meltdown of the U.S. economy—and the fickle taste of film financers, movie distributors and Hollywood studio executives.
SEXUAL HEALING rescheduled to start filming in 2007, the proposed project ran into financing difficulties again, when this time James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) joined the production as producer and will also play a role in the film. Gandolfini is producing via his Attaboy shingle with partner Alexandra Ryan. Also slated to produce are Ayo Davis, Efuru Flowers and Roger Haber. Gary Hamilton's Arclight Films will executive-produce and handle international sales. Victor Syrmis is Executive Producer with Hamilton. Arclight Films is handling sales for the $15 million production with principal photography originally scheduled to commence April 15, 2008 on locations in Massachusetts, Ostend, Belgium, and Los Angeles. Shooting was then set for April 2008—as the producers of MARVIN announced their plans.
Once again, it didn’t happen.
Lauren Goodman’s screenplay is now being rewritten by Steven Turner, the English music journalist who lives in London and author of the biographical Trouble Man. And although industry heavyweight James Gandolfini had come aboard last year to star in and produce the film, the production scheduled to begin shooting April 15, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts (as well as Ostend, Belgium and Los Angeles) missed its start date.
Director Lauren Goodman did, however, find someone who looks the part of the R&B singer and can sing: Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) has for some time been attached to portray the tragic, legendary soul singer.
Jesse Lamont Martin (born Jesse Lamont Watkins, January 18, 1969) is the only popular actor/singer that resembles Gaye so completely. An American theater, film and television performer best known for originating the role of Tom Collins in the stage musical Rent was also lauded for his portrayal of Detective Ed Green in the NBC series Law & Order. And for nearly three years, Martin has been set to play the iconic soul singer. So, when can fans expect to see him portray Marvin Gaye on screen? SEXUAL HEALING has been in technical “pre-production” since 2008 with a planned 2010 release date.
F. Gary Gray (director: THE ITALIAN JOB, 2003) has been signed to replace D Stevens as director of MARVIN: THE MARVIN GAYE STORY. The motion picture project originally developed by Stevens will still encompass the life of the singer from his emergence at Motown Records, his defiance of music mogul Berry Gordy, his European exile and finally the fatal confrontation with his father ending with the singer’s sudden death.
“This is my passion project,” F. Gary Gray told Daily Variety, “the one that I wake up every day thinking about.”
Felix Gary Gray (born 1969 in New York City) dropped out of college to pursue filmmaking, directing more than two dozen music videos before transitioning into motion pictures with his first film. Given the highest budget any African-American director ever received ($50 million for THE NEGOTIATOR, 1998) Gray’s best known work to date is THE ITALIAN JOB (2003) that grossed in the U.S. more than $100 million.
MARVIN will be produced by music mogul David Foster with Duncan McGillivray who had secured the music rights; this package reportedly includes the rights to Gaye’s entire music catalog, including the hits that made the singer Motown’s most successful solo artist. Roberta Flack is listed as “music supervisor”. The screenplay by Robert Scharrer is being given a rewrite by C. Gaby Mitchell chronicling the rise of the singer’s career and final years. Roberta Flack has been listed as “music supervisor”. The drama will feature Gaye’s original Motown recordings to be lip-synced by a yet-to-be-cast performer in the title role. And without a completed script, the producers have been shopping the project to film studios and financiers.
The trade paper 
refers to each film as a “rival” production, going head-to-head, when in fact they could be allies in bringing the life and legacy of Marvin Gaye into dramatic form. As pointed out, David Foster and his co-producers have reportedly secured a package of Marvin Gaye’s biggest hits during the Motown era for MARVIN, while James Gandolfini and his co-producers have secured the rights to Gaye’s post-Motown tunes for SEXUAL HEALING–both film projects have been “in the works” since 2006 and 2007, respectively. Acquiring rights to the music may have been the original hang-up, but no doubt financing and script revisions are the real causes for further delay.
Independent financing key to both productions, more than likely only one of these films might actually come to light unless…. Could these two so-called “competing” productions cooperate by merging into a single film? SEXUAL HEALING scheduled to begin filming in 2006, 2007 and 2008 but had never done so; and MARVIN hasn’t got a finished script or leading man. Right now, neither project has the upper hand. The dramatic consequence of Marvin Gaye’s life notwithstanding, rather than turn either film—or co-adaptation—into a cinematic reality might just not happen while the people who could make it happen are content to sit on the fence, too skeptical about the chances of either in the marketplace.
After all, not all movies make a profit; and to keep the downside from becoming too steep in the present-day economy for filmmaking, this sort of “co-op” between filmmakers could hedge their bets in managing the risk by adopting a hard-headed business approach—considering factors such as film genre, target audience, historical success of similar movies, and the best possible actor (Jesse L. Martin) in the leading role. The producers of both film projects should in fact work together to expedite in bringing a single, high-octane motion picture to fruition with a proven director (F. Gary Gray) in appealing to a worldwide audience…or is this too obvious?
The clamor to put Marvin Gaye on screen seems a tad ironic. Back in the day, Baby Boomers may recall at the height of his commercial success, the word was out that the young soul singer might be tapped to play crooner Sam Cooke (Gaye’s boyhood idol) in a big screen biography. Coincidentally, both performers were murdered, shot and killed at an early age. Unfortunately, that proposed film project that would have cast Gaye as Cooke was shuttered, the opportunity apparently lost in the Hollywood shuffle. In looking back, it’s truly everybody’s loss.
Despite his personal and musical charisma, Marvin Gaye enjoyed only a small “acting career” that never went beyond supporting roles, bit parts and cameos in minor films:
THE BALLAD OF ANDY CROCKER (1969) directed by George McCowan is a made-for-TV movie starring Lee Majors as Andy Crocker, a disillusioned Vietnam veteran whose homecoming is hardly a hero’s welcome. Crocker finds that his girl friend is married, his business is in the toilet, and his friends and neighbors are reluctant to acknowledge his existence. Originally telecast in November 1969, this film is the first to tackle the issue of disenfranchised Vietnam vets coming to terms with indifference and hostility after coming home, and notable for showcasing singer Marvin Gaye’s debut performance as an actor.
NORWOOD (1970) directed by Jack Haley begins as Norwood Pratt (Glen Campbell) has just finished his enlistment in the United States Marine Corps and on his way home. Along the way, he meets a variety of characters, including Marvin Gaye as a young Marine (in a cameo role).
CHROME & HOT LEATHER (1971) directed by Lee Frost features a band of Green Berets (including Marvin Gaye as “Jim”) who take military leave in preparing to track down evildoers, a motorcycle gang called “The Devils” responsible for the death of a soldier’s girlfriend. The Devils are in for some serious trouble as the Berets use their army skills to achieve justice.
TROUBLE MAN (1972) directed by Ivan Dixon flopped as a film, but still noted today for its successful soundtrack written, produced and performed by Marvin Gaye. “T” (Robert Hooks) is the ghetto’s “fixer” in South Central Los Angeles. He looks out for black folks on the block, when he finds himself on the run from both cops and hoods. In addition to providing the original music score, Marvin Gaye plays a cameo role. The theme song “Trouble Man” (1972) features different vocal tracks other than the hit single album, and for a while became Gaye’s signature song, chronologically sandwiched between the singer’s social evaluation, “What’s Goin’ On?” (1971) and his sexual liberation, “Let’s Get It On” (1973).
Fans of Marvin Gaye are left wandering if either MARVIN or SEXUAL HEALING will ever get off the ground and onto the screen (or DVD) and avoid being added to that ever-growing list of “lost films”. Movies like RAY and WALK THE LINE only work when R-E-S-P-E-C-T is shown. Marvin Gaye has earned it. Either way, a whole life experience is not going to move fluidly through any single motion picture without lots of “creative fiction” and epical length, should there be an attempt to include just about everything in the singer's life. Even at that, a movie adaptation is expected to leave a great deal out, in part because of a lot of nastiness in a person’s life. (Although very talented, Gaye was selfish and let down a lot of people who cared about him.) Also, fear of upsetting certain religious or political factions could put a scrub brush to the script, sanitizing those elements considered too sexually explicit or graphic for a (Heaven helps us!) PG-13 rating.
Marvin Gaye had it all. At the height of his career, the singer had millions of dollars and an equal supply of adoring fans from around the world; a loving family and the sybaritic presence not to be deprived of any desire. Fans fixated on these hallmarks tend to ignore all the shortcomings, of course, having created an “image” of the perfect icon—that never existed. Perceptions over time change of course, especially postmortem as Gaye’s glamour gets scrubbed by reality. History of this artist as a young man is his astounding gift, the lives he touched, and those inner demons haunting his soul.
Born in Washington D.C., the American singer-songwriter, Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) added the “e” to his stage name for a number of reasons: to curtail any gossip about his being gay (because of his soft-spoken voice coupled with his last name, often accused of homosexuality); to pay tribute to his inspiration, Sam Cooke who had also added the “e” to his last name; and to separate himself from his father. (More on that later.)
Discharged from the U.S. Air Force in 1957, the 6ft/1-inch (1.85 m) accomplished drummer and pianist began his career in 1959 as a member of the singing group The Moonglows, until they disbanded in 1960 when group member Harvey Fuqua took Gaye to Detroit, Michigan, where he pursued a solo career after signing with the fledging Motown Records as a session drummer.
All that was profound and profane about the soul singer transformed scores of songs into hits, Marvin Gaye becoming the number one Rhythm & Blues soloist in the country, throughout the decade of the 1960s. Songs like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) and “I Heard It through the Grapevine” had popularly crowned Marvin Gaye as “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul”.
In March 1970, American soul singer Tammi Terrell collapsed in Gaye’s arms while on stage during a performance—later diagnosed with a brain tumor, leading the 24-year-old singer to her premature death later in the month.
Tammi Terrell (born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery; April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970), an American soul singer notable for her association with Motown and duets with Marvin Gaye, signed with Motown Records in 1965 and enjoying only modest success as a solo singer; but once paired with Gaye in several duets (“If This World Was Mine” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”) by 1967 her stardom flourished.
Ms Terrell entered the music business at age 13, signed to a recording company under the name “Tammy Montgomery”. Later, after coming to the attention of James Brown, she recorded one single for Brown’s record label and Checker Records. In 1965 Berry Gordy signed her to the Motown label. Attractive and talented, she had been romantically linked to James Brown then subsequently David Ruffin of The Temptations singing quintet.
Devastated by her death, Gaye fell into a deep depression and didn’t record any new material or appear on stage for some time. (Instead, he tried out for the Detroit Lions football team.) During his sabbatical from the music industry, he met with two musicians working on a politically conscious song called “What’s Goin’ On?” and assisted them in completing the tune for a minor Motown group, when persuaded to record the song himself.
In June of 1970, Marvin Gaye recorded “What's Going On”.
A period of cultural awakening marked a change in his career as Marvin Gaye embraced the antiestablishment mood of the times. Late in the decade Marvin Gaye clashed with Motown founder, Berry Gordy over what music to record. But with the support of his girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) Anna Gordy, the music mogul relented in allowing the upstart to “produce” a standard album.
“Negotiation means getting the best of your opponent.”—Marvin Gaye
The rebellious “Prince of Motown” fighting the company’s restrictions, the singer-songwriter braved the role of producer without relying upon “the system”—thereby becoming an inspiration for other artists who would follow his example, like Stevie Wonder and later Michael Jackson.
WHAT’S GOIN’ ON? (released 1971; recorded June, 1970) shred the frivolity in Gaye’s earlier successes, as the singer shed his romantic lyrics for those ripe with social call-and-response. The singer awakened musically to his own personal call-for-action by questioning the most critical issues of his time: a costly foreign war, economic recession, environment protection, drug abuse, racial inequality—a soul-searching introspective and reflection about the multi-headed political hydra never dormant.
In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say... I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.—Marvin Gaye
An immediate commercial and critical success, the words and music endure as a documentary of an emerging pioneer in commercial soul music and his landmark recordings that changed forever American music history.
Gaye’s first live performance on June 1, 1972 at the Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington D.C. came after two years away from the stage, following Tammi Terrell’s illness and death.
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holla)” in the final minute of the song (musically positioned at the end of the LP) brilliantly reprises the deeply personal “What’s Goin’ On?”—the album’s introductory theme differing, here, from the popular version, in that Gaye begins by singing “Mother, mother” out of love he holds dear for his mom, Alberta; followed by “Brother, brother, brother” to acknowledge of his fraternity, Frankie, fighting the war in Vietnam:
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today - Ya
The singer continues with “Father, father” as a plea to his patriarch in overcoming their mutually shared hostility:
Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today
Any wonder that Gaye’s 1973 hit “Let's Get It On” written some years prior as a polemical reflection on the state of social unrest in America also took inventory of his emotional life? Toward the mid-1970s the singer had influenced the sounds of urban adult contemporary music, leading with the era’s most sexually explicit lyrics ever set to music. “Let’s Get It On” intimated the singer’s inner conflict, referring the fight between sex and religion, until ending his Motown career, following release of the autobiographical double-album “Here, My Dear”—sardonically dedicated to the disintegration of his marriage. (His wife had contemplated suing for invasion of privacy.)
Marvin Gaye took leave of social concerns that fueled the 1971 album WHAT’S GOIN’ ON?; crossing a confusing bridge from his commercial peak to the biggest hit of his career: the 1982 smash “Sexual Healing” finally earned Gaye his Grammy Award recognition. The singer without any broader ambition underscores, here, the ribald lyrics and erotic obsession at the core of the song’s concern. Gaye simultaneously gave a nod to Jesus in the liner notes of the host-album, MIDNIGHT LOVE while rampant with melodic humping.
Away from the public eye, and after an extended period of slumping sales and inactivity, Marvin Gaye marked his final rally. Faced with personal demons during a year-long crack binge that nearly destroyed him, in 1979—broke and broken. He had come back from Europe after his late-1970 self-imposed “exile” topping the music charts with “Sexual Healing”. His velvet vocals lustfully simmering with erotic distemper, the words raw from unrequited sex (while abroad claiming to have abstained for those three years) the singer owned an extensive pornography collection.
Returning to America where he took up lodgings with his parents, Gaye also returned from a protracted drug addiction, and then got back on the spike following a nasty relapse, overcome by paranoia and depression. By 1983 Marvin Gaye, much like his alcoholic father, had taken ill due to his drug addiction and struggles with substance abuse—as the relationship with his dad continued to deteriorate.
On Christmas Day, he gave his father a handgun for protection from an alleged plot (on the life of Marvin Jr.). Some time later, on the night of March 31, 1984, Marvin, Sr. insulted his wife Alberta (over misplaced documents) in a drunken tirade. Awakened by the argument, Marvin Jr. verbally assaulted his father. The following morning, on April 1st Marvin Sr. reheated the argument that led to a physical confrontation between father and son, during which Marvin, Jr. shoved his father to the ground. Retrieving the handgun, Marvin Sr. was allegedly goaded by his son into pulling the trigger—shooting him in the shoulder and the chest, killing him instantly, the day before his 45th birthday and the week before starting rehearsals with singer Barry White for a planned duet.
Charged with first-degree murder, during sentencing Marvin Sr. tearfully stated to the court that he wished he had not killed his son…and could take it all back. He agreed to serve five years probation for the crime after doctors discovered a brain tumor in the 69-year-old, who pled “no-contest” to voluntary manslaughter. Sent to a nursing home, where he remained until October of 1998, Marvin Gaye’s elderly father died of pneumonia in Culver City, California nine days after his 84th birthday.
The troubling relationship between father and son didn’t stop Marvin Jr. from dedicating to his dad the album WHAT’S GOIN’ ON? and the song “Everybody Needs Love” (from HERE, MY DEAR) in which he tells how his dad, like himself, “needed love”. The singer while on tour would commonly mentioned the influence of his father’s sermons—even once had Marvin, Sr. join him on stage, and embraced his dad in a rare moment.
Divided Soul: The Life & Times of Marvin Gaye by the American author David Ritz (born 1942) was published in 1985, a year after Gaye was murdered by his father. Steven Turner’s Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye picks up roughly where Ritz’s narrative leaves off; and the reader comes away with a clear understanding of what made Marvin a maverick. Although not quite as in-depth as Divided Soul, Turner’s Trouble Man moves quickly, despite the involving history of its tragic subject; a wonderful musician with a troubled soul who all his life sought the affection of his father.
The true story of Marvin Gaye is his father, a minister and alcoholic leading a double life as a cross-dresser, wearing his wife’s clothes and a wig…and the complexities of his son's inner conflict in seeking unconditional love.
Festering wounds of animosity that never healed, it would be Marvin Jr.'s hopeless struggle for recognition and acceptance at the heart of the singer’s defining moment—just before the trigger was pulled.
The significant impact Marvin, Sr. had upon his son’s psyche sums up the singer’s inner life. His father never wanted him, and Marvin Gaye incredibly addressed his hurt through music. The inseparable connection between father and son was freighted with Marvin Sr.'s self-loathing that he projected onto his son, who incredulously took the weight—and so emphatically that later, when the Elder Gay threatened to kill him, Marvin Jr. egged him on, releasing a lifetime of toxic rage frustrated by unrequited filial love. The real surprise is the fact that the singer didn’t die sooner.
And yet, with often weary spirit Marvin Gaye made indelible music with a global reach.
The legendary soul singer’s illustrious, checkered career ran the gamut of romantic R&B and the gantlet of sexual liberation while spanning the event horizon of wartime politics and social change in America—before his life abruptly ended with two bullets fired from a gun. Love, sex, jealousy, drugs, paranoia and revenge were his personal demons. Ingrained from birth, these "devils" might have been vanquished had he realized at an earlier age that his father’s opinion made no difference in the fulfillment of his life; an unfinished life that has become grassroots testimonial to the benefits of therapy that could have saved Marvin Gaye from his father...and ultimately from himself.
