Darryl M. Bell

Darryl Michael Bell
Bell in 2006
Born (1963-05-10) May 10, 1963 (age 61)
Other namesDaryl Bell
EducationDelbarton School
Syracuse University
OccupationActor
Years active1987–present
PartnerTempestt Bledsoe (1993–present)

Darryl M. Bell (sometimes credited as Daryl Bell; born May 10, 1963) is an American actor best known for his role as Big Brother X-Ray Vision in the 1988 Spike Lee film School Daze and as Ron Johnson Jr. on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1987–93). Darryl Bell also starred on the short-lived UPN sitcom Homeboys in Outer Space as Morris Clay.

Bell was born as the son of Travers J. Bell Jr., the founder of the first black firm on the New York Stock Exchange.[1] Bell graduated from Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey in May 1981, where he was one of four African American students, accounting for 1% of the school's enrollment.[2] Bell also attended Syracuse University. Bell is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, having pledged the fraternity through the Delta Zeta chapter in Spring 1982. He is in a 30 year-long committed relationship with actress Tempestt Bledsoe, who co-starred in the NBC TV comedy The Cosby Show. The couple appeared together in the Fox reality TV series Househusbands of Hollywood, that debuted in August 2009.[3]

  1. ^ Wolff, Craig (27 January 1988). "Travers J. Bell Jr., 46, Founder Of Only Black Firm on Exchange". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Weaver, Maurice. "Darryl Bell Gets Caught Up In A World Of Success", Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1989. Accessed June 29, 2012. "Bell`s own education at Del Barton [sic], an all-boys Catholic preparatory boarding school in New Jersey run by Benedictine monks, was nothing like the atmosphere at A Different World`s fictional Hillman College, a historically black institution. 'As I look back, there were some very hard times for me being one out of four black students, out of 400 students at Del Barton,' says Bell, a talkative student but never the class clown."
  3. ^ The Obenson Report, 12/21/2008 (accessed 2/16/2009)