Mel Stewart (September 19, 1929 - February 24, 2002) was an American character actor, director, and musician who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for playing Henry Jefferson on the popular television series All in the Family. Stewart is sometimes credited as Melvin Stewart or Melvin Stuart.
An accomplished saxophonist, he played with jazz musicians John Coltrane and Charlie Parker (I).
Child = daughter Alia Dong-Stewart.
He taught acting workshops at San Francisco State University (one of his students was Danny Glover). He founded a theater group called Bantu (Black Actors Now Through Unity).
He was a third degree Black Belt in Aikido.
