TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
Maxwell Banks 1933–2022 Actor, Artist, Author, Fashion Designer, U.S. Air Force By Aaron Williams
K nown by his professional name Max Julien, Maxwell Banks (Xi 1954) entered the Chapter Invisible on January 1, 2022, at age 88, from cardiopulmonary arrest. Banks rose to pop-culture prominence with his starring role as Goldie in “The Mack,” a 1973 film about the rise and fall of a pimp. While not a hit when the movie was released, “The Mack” evolved into a classic 1970s Blaxploita- tion genre. Numerous hip-hop artists and rappers have sampled Banks’ voice in the film. Quentin Tarantino paid homage to it in his script for the 1993 film “True Romance.” In 2013, when the Los Angeles Museum of Contem- porary Art held a screening in honor of the film’s 40 th anniversary. From “the Mack”, Banks donated his character’s Goldie’s single-breasted white fur maxi-coat to the Smithson- ian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Ac- cording to a 2002 documentary, Banks designed the film’s costumes and ensured local Black clothing designers made them. Maxwell Julien Banks was born on
July 12, 1933, in Washington. His fa- ther, Seldon Bushrod Banks, was an air- line mechanic. His mother, Cora (née Page) Banks, was a restaurant owner. She was murdered in her home in 1972, and Mr. Julien said that his grief over her death influenced his performance in “The Mack.” He won a basketball scholarship to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., spending a year before transferring to Howard University. He joined the Air Force in 1955 and served as an air traffic controller before beginning his acting career. He took his middle name as his stage name because he felt it sounded more theatrical than Banks. Banks had notable roles in other movies including “Thomasine and Bushrod” and “Def Jam’s How to Be a Player,” and he appeared on TV in episodes of “The Mod Squad” and “One on One.” He wrote the screenplay for the 1973 film “Cleopatra Jones,” and co-produced the film. Banks played a Black militant in the 1970 film “Getting Straight” and appeared in “Uptight,” a 1968 update of the 1935 movie “The Informer” written by Ruby Dee. He
also acted on television. In addition to acting and screenwrit- ing, Banks was also an author, sculptor, and fashion designer. Brother Maxwell Banks, known as Max Julien, is survived by his wife, Ara- bella Chavers Julien.
50 | SUMMER 2022 ♦ THE JOURNAL
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