Lester Wilson (1942-1993) from Good Times

Lester Wilson was born 75 years ago yesterday.  You may be thinking "I've never heard of a character named Lester Wilson on the show 'Good Times.'"  Well, it's actually the name of the actor who played unscrupulous grocery story manager Mr. Gage in the episode "Florida's Protest" (November 25, 1975... two days before Thanksgiving, which is fitting if you know the plot).  I always thought he was hilarious in that role, especially the final scene (photo above), so I looked him up.
It turns out that this may be his most prominent on-screen role... the rest of his work was as a choreographer, most notably on "Saturday Night Fever."  He was also a singer, which is where we get the odd clip below.  Clearly, there are some production values at work (no matter how simple the presentation is), since this was filmed instead of videotaped (at a time when tape was used for most lower-budget productions).  I have no idea if this was meant to be a standalone music video, or is part of a movie or TV show.  It's pretty catchy, and the re-arrangement of the song "25 Miles" has an unexpected use of the musical phrase that, in Edwin Starr's version, is sung by backup singers.


And here's his Mariachied take on Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life."