Jesse Jackson
Known for: Acting
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (October 8, 1941 — February 17, 2026) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He founded of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted 'the most important black leader'.
Filmography
Series
The Daily Show
Self
1996
Series
Saturday Night Live
Self - Host
1975
Series
Saturday Night Live
Self (uncredited)
1975
Series
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
2005
Series
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Self
2003
Series
Real Time with Bill Maher
Self
2003
Series
A Different World
Himself
1987
Series
Dinah!
Self
1974
Series
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Cocky Locky (voice)
1995
Series
World in Action
1963
Series
Explained
Self (archive footage)
2018
Series
The Chris Rock Show
Self
1997
Series
Robins
Self - Guest
2006
Series
Baseball
Various (voice)
1994
Series
Not Necessarily the News
Self (archive footage)
1983
Series
Velshi
Self (archive footage)
2017
Series
Joy Behar: Say Anything!
2009
Series
Hollywood Black
Self (archive footage)
2024
Series
Tanner '88
Himself (uncredited)
1988
Series
Shut Up and Dribble
Self - Civil Rights Leader
2018
Series
Tanner on Tanner
Self
2004
Film
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Self
2021
Series
Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union
Self
2021
Film
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
(archive footage)
1999
Film
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
Self (archive footage)
2021
Film
A Man's Story
Self
2011
Film
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
Self
2013
Film
Nationtime: Gary
Self
1972
Series
Obama
Self
2020
Film
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
Self (archive footage)
2021
Film
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Self (archive footage)
1970
Film
'85: The Greatest Team in Football History
Self
2016
Film
Fantastic Lies
Himself (archive footage)
2016
Film
Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over
Self
2021
Film
I Am MLK Jr.
Self
2018
Film
Uptight
Self (archive footage)
1968
Film
BaadAsssss Cinema
Self
2002
Film
Operation Breadbasket
Self
1969
Film
4 Little Girls
Self - Founder of the Rainbow Push Coalition
1997
Film
Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story
Self
2021
Film
Last Party 2000
Self
2001
Film
University, Inc.
Self (Archive Footage)
1999
Film
Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound
Self
2009
Film
Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony
Self (archive footage)
2002
Film
LA 92
Self (archive footage)
2017
Film
The Road to Mass Incarceration
Self
2018
Film
The Journey of the African-American Athlete
Self (archive footage)
1996
Film
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
Self
2009
Film
Rise Up: The Movement that Changed America
Self
2018
Film
King: Man of Peace in a Time of War
Self
2007
Film
Decade
Self
1989
Film
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
Self - Audience Member (uncredited)
1982
Film
We Are Many
Self
2014
Film
South to Black Power
Self
2023
Film
Wattstax
Self
1973
Film
Bernie Blackout
Self (archive footage)
2020
Film
Michael Jackson Memorial
Self
2009
Film
Route One/USA
Self
1989
Film
MLK: The Assassination Tapes
Self (archive Footage)
2012
Film
America's Political Parties: Power and Principle
Self
1992
Film
A Matter of Respect
1980
Film
Contradictory America. Faith, hope, love and hate. Film 2
Self/Cameo (archive footage)
1973
Film
The Soul of Stax
Self
1994
Film
Save the Children
Self
1973
The Day the Troubles Began
Self
2008
Film
Punch 9 for Harold Washington
2021
Film
Crashing the Party
Self
2016
Film
The Subtext of a Yale Education
Self
1999
Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media
Self
2018
Film
Mahalia Jackson: The Power and the Glory
1997
Film
In Remembrance of Martin
Self
1986
Film
A Decade of Struggle
Self
1980
Film
September First, Twenty-Twenty
Himself
2021
Film
Loudmouth
Self - Civil Rights Activist/Self - Baptist Minister (archive footage)
2022
Film
Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham
Self
1993
Film
The Nine Lives of Marion Barry
Self
2009
Jackie Robinson: An American Journey
On Screen Narrator
1988
Film
Stax, le label soul légendaire
Self (archive footage)
2019
Film
Anecdotes about Fidel
2009
We Are Universal
1971
Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy
Self
1983
Film
El otro Rey de Chicago
Self
2022
Film
Chicago at the Crossroad
Self
2019
Film
Killing Martin Luther King Jr.
Self
2021
Ballou
Himself
2008
Dear Mister President
Self
Someday We'll all Be Free: The Donny Hathaway Story
Self
2020