The Last Don

It's sometimes unwise to upstage a star, but don't tell that to Don Cheadle. In 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, Cheadle— who played a jumpy hooligan named Mouse—stole a few scenes away from leading man Denzel Washington. Then, last spring, he landed the L.A. Film Critics' Association bestsupporting-actor award for his performance in the film. That was just the happy beginning. Now the 3 2-year-old stars in John Singleton's Rosewood, based on actual events in a black Florida town torched by white neighbors who never got over the fact that the Confederates lost, and he has three more films due out this year: Volcano, with Tommy Lee Jones, Boogie Nights, with Julianne Moore, and Warren Beatty's Bulworth. Still, the increasingly renowned scene-stealer is talking a modest game: "You think, I've grabbed the brass ring," he says, "and it turns out not to be it, because the part could be great, and everything else-or you—could turn out not to be."

Yet things have a way of turning out pretty well for this onetime jazz vocalist, who turned down singing scholarships to pursue acting at CalArts. Cheadle has directed six theater productions, including a play he wrote (he was also on CBS for three seasons in the Emmy-winning Picket Fences), but unlike many other actingschool alumni, he is in no rush to become a hyphenate actordirector. The challenge for him is on-screen.

"Becoming an actor wasn't really because I had this desire to elevate the art," he says. "But now, if I'm going to do this, that's what it needs to be about."

RIZA CRUZ