Holly Robinson Peete’s career builds on moments from the full circle. So it’s very fitting that her celebration at the Hollywood Walk of Fame is also backed by a blast from the past.
“I was so moved, I thought my mom would drive me cross-country when I was nine from Philadelphia in search of a better life,” she told Variety. “I thought about becoming a personal manager and signed up with her first client, Livar Burton. She was an OG momager and she is definitely the reason I got this star.”
Fast forward to June 21 and Burton is one of the people speaking for Pete when she greets this star. “I can’t wait to hear him talk about 11-year-old Holly,” she adds.
As Betty grew up, he was always around actors. Her mother, Dolores Robinson, has represented clients including Martin Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Wesley Snipes, Rosie Perez and Michael Clarke Duncan. Her father Matt grew up as Gordon on “Sesame Street”. They have both been supportive of her career, but they also wanted you to understand how brutal that was.
Beth’s mother insisted that she was “the only black female in the room” that she presented herself as “better and more honest than anyone else.” She also asked her daughter to be gentle with every member of the TV crew. Her father paid for college education and a backup plan.
Beth majored in French and psychology, and thought she’d do something with the language if all else failed. But this lead error has always been there. At the age of five, she joined her father on “Sesame” (they cut off her speaking role after she continued calling Gordon “Daddy”), and later became a reporter on “Kidzworld”. But it wasn’t until her final year in college that she got what she thought was her big break: a role in “Howard the Duck.”
“The George Lucas movie was $100 million. Then the movie failed, and I started looking at graduate school,” she laughs. “I used to not have it on my resume but now, because of Marvel, it’s kind of a cult classic.”
That disappointment may have been what her parents were preparing for, but when Pitt landed the role of Officer Jodi Hoffs in “21 Jump Street” at the age of 21, she knew it was the real start of her career. Fox was launched and the show was on a roster that included “Married… With Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show”.
“We went up to Vancouver and built these kits,” she recalls. “I had the iconic feelings of a true Leviathan leader. Then I met Johnny Depp, who came about a month later [in to replace Jeff Yagher]. I remember thinking, “Holy shit. This is going to explode. And I did.”
From there, Peete’s television career was a series of successes. When “Jump Street” ended in 1991, she proved how funny it can be in “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper. “
“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”
© ABC / Courtesy Everett Collectio
“That sitcom muscle is no joke, and I didn’t have that muscle,” she recalls. “I had to work really hard on the audition. It was a whole other energy.”
Pete also “worked corners” to promote her first love: singing. She convinced Stephen Cannell to let her sing “21 Jump Street,” and did the same with “Mr. Cooper’s Opening Number,” which she sang alongside En Vogue and Dawnn Lewis. Prince took note and invited Peete to collaborate.
“I was obsessed with Prince at that point. When he called me, I thought my brother was playing tricks on me.” She went to Paisley Park and recorded a song written by “Holly Don’t Care” with the late artist. The song was never released, and it remains a cherished memory.
“He offered me a contract and my lawyer was like, ‘You can’t accept this. I know you love him. I know you want to work with him. You sang a song with him and you can tell your grandchildren about it. “So, we became great friends instead. I still haven’t lost him much.”
Throughout her career, there have been many things that Pete remembers. In 1992, she was flown to New York to audition for Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang. She desperately wanted the party, but as she was leaving her hotel, she got the call: They were going with Halle Berry.
“I knew Halle would get it. I knew what I was going through. But that moment where I couldn’t at least get up and show what I could do? He broke my soul in a way I can’t even tell you,” she said.
That night, Beth was drowning her sorrows in a bar when she spotted her friend Quincy Jones in the corner. Among the tears, I filled him.
He was like, ‘Not letting you audition for an Eddie Murphy movie will make you quit? You remember, “Oh, then you have to quit.” “It wasn’t what I wanted to hear from Quincy, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. I picked up my ass and got back on that horse.”
This tough love caught up with Peete in the early 2000s after one of her all-time favorite projects, “For Your Love,” ended. Her career slowed down, but her personal life improved. She is married to former NFL star Rodney Peet and they have four children. When their son, Rodney Peet Jr., was diagnosed with autism, the couple used the HollyRod Foundation, which they formed in 1997 to focus on Parkinson’s disease, to raise awareness of it.
“I was shocked at how few people know what autism is,” she says. “We knew we had to use our platform to talk about it so that people would have hope and this community would feel visible. When we got that diagnosis, we could hardly say the word for autism. Now, to be there and be a beacon to others, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
When “Sesame Street” announced the introduction of Julia, a character with autism, another moment was in full circle. Pete traveled to Washington, DC, to be part of the presentation on Capitol Hill.
“It was a very emotional time for me. If this kind of awareness had been present when my son was little, I guarantee it would have helped him make more friends. If there had been more understanding and awareness like what Julia brought him, his childhood would have been easier.”
This wish for her son may have given Betty more understanding of how her parents wanted to protect her in her career. Fortunately, she was much older in her life when she experienced the dark side of Hollywood.
That moment came in 2010, when she was dropped from the new daytime series “The Talk” after one season. Pete thought her first year had gone really well, so when she was fired, it came as a shock. On camera, she and co-stars Sarah Gilbert, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, and Leah Remini thought they had a lot of chemistry.
“I’ve never been fired from a job. So it was a foreign experience,” she says, adding that she and her husband were married at the home of former CBS chief Les Moonves. “This was a man we had known throughout our marriage, and we ended up not being able to get on the phone with him.”
After 30 years, she was finally facing what her parents had warned her about.
“Being the director’s daughter, I watched all kinds of crazy bullshit happen in this business, but it didn’t really happen to me,” she says. “And I caught you by surprise. But you wouldn’t be able to work in this field for 40 years without some of those moments. I embrace it all now, but when it was happening it was really hard.”
Betty says she recently found a conclusion to the whole situation, and reconnected with some of the people involved. Now, she’s back on the show for the first time since she came out as a guest to chat about her Hollywood star’s reception.
“That’s what life is about, those full-circle moments where a situation you never imagined suddenly happens,” she notes. “As my mother used to say, ‘If you stay long enough, people will finally give you your love and give you flowers. “
advice sheet
what or what: Holly Robinson Pete receives a star on the Walk of Fame
when: June 21, 11:30 a.m.
where: 6623 Hollywood Blvd
web: walkoffame.com
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