AFRICAN-AMERICAN RENAISSANCE : CAST CHOICES CAN GIVE BOOST AT BOX OFFICE.

Byline: Craigh Barboza The New York Times

It was a transformation that had been in the making for years but didn't become plainly visible until this summer, when every other movie, it seemed, had an African-American actor in a major role.

Now a banner fall season for African-American actors is under way, and what may have been surprising in June has become accepted fact in November: No longer marginalized in all-African-American films, no longer relegated to ``buddy'' roles in big-budget action yarns, African-American actors have become mainstays in mainstream movies.

``It's natural evolution,'' says Morgan Freeman, who appeared as a mysterious mentor to Keanu Reeves in the espionage-thriller ``Chain Reaction,'' which opened in August. ``Black actors, just now, belong to the mainstream. The next push is probably going to be for Asian performers, or whoever the next group is struggling to break that unstated barrier. Black actors have broken through.''

Consider the evidence. Last year, African-American actors had prominent roles in only nine of the summer's 38 major films, or 24 percent. This summer, African-American actors had major roles in 45 percent of the season's 42 big movies. And six of the films they performed in were top-10 moneymakers.

Audiences saw Will Smith as the fighter-pilot hero in ``Independence Day,'' Ving Rhames as a computer genius in ``Mission: Impossible,'' Samuel L. Jackson as the avenging father in ``A Time to Kill'' and Eddie Murphy as the 400-pound ``Nutty Professor.''

Also on the big screen were ``The Fan'' with Wesley Snipes, ``Courage Under Fire'' with Denzel Washington and ``Eraser'' with Vanessa Williams. Now, in a busy fall season, come, among others, Keenen Ivory Wayans in ``The Glimmer Man,'' Jackson in ``The Long Kiss Goodnight,'' Lela Rochon in ``The Chamber,'' and Whoopi Goldberg in ``The Associate.''

In the wings, awaiting a holiday-season opening, are ``The Preacher's Wife,'' with Whitney Houston and Washington, and ``The Ghosts of Mississippi,'' starring, again, Goldberg.

And not just big stars are getting work. An ensemble cast of African-American actresses (Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica Fox and Kimberly Oldham) appears in ``Set It Off,'' an action film that opens Wednesday. And in Spike Lee's ``Get on the Bus,'' which opened recently, Charles S. Dutton leads an African-American cast in a film about a group headed for last year's Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

There have always been African-American stars, of course, from Dorothy Dandridge to James Earl Jones. Indeed, in the 1960s, Sidney Poitier was the industry's most bankable star. But for reasons ranging from the changing demographics of the moviegoing audience to the growing numbers of African-American directors, there have probably never been as many African-American stars as there are now.

Reflecting another shift in Hollywood, many of these stars are now deemed capable of opening a mainstream film in colorblind roles - actors like Washington, Jackson, Goldberg, Houston, Snipes and Laurence Fishburne.

``It's also important to realize that many of these actors have been around for a long time, doing work, good work,'' says Delroy Lindo, who plays an FBI man in Ron Howard's thriller ``Ransom,'' opening Friday. ``They say the cream rises to the top. Maybe it's just a time in which the excellence of these actors is being recognized.''

Many in Hollywood point to the success of last year's ``Waiting to Exhale'' as a watershed for African-American actors. The film, starring four African-American women - Angela Bassett, Houston, Rochon and Loretta Devine - proved that a movie geared for African-American audiences could succeed at the box office (a respectable $67 million) without having to rely on action sequences. As it turned out, the film, a comic celebration of female strength and independence, attracted as many white women as it did African-American women.

African-American actors are also taking the place of some of the biggest white stars, who have priced themselves out of anything but blockbuster roles. Thus, when Bruce Willis became too expensive for ``Executive Privilege,'' a $60 million film, Wesley Snipes took the job.

When Keanu Reeves passed on a starring role in the sci-fi comedy ``Men in Black,'' Will Smith grabbed it. In this summer's ``Solo,'' Mario Van Peebles took a role, as a high-tech soldier, that had been developed for Sylvester Stallone. And in last year's ``Bad Boys,'' Martin Lawrence and Will Smith took roles that had been intended for Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.

Hollywood executives are finding that casting African-American stars is an increasingly smart option. ``You look at an actor like Denzel Washington,'' says Robert Shaye, the chairman of New Line Cinema. ``I just heard somewhere that he's the fourth-most-popular male actor in a survey of a thousand people: first was John Wayne; second, Clint Eastwood, and third, Mel Gibson. I think audiences, more and more, are beginning to accept actors - as opposed to actors with ethnic accouterments.''

A case in point was ``Courage Under Fire.'' When Washington signed on to play the lead role in the Gulf War drama for $10 million (the highest sum paid an African-American actor for a dramatic role), the producers passed over other candidates such as Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford.

Much of the credit for this shift is given to the African-American directors who gave these actors their start. As Donald DeLine, president of Touchstone Pictures, says: ``Spike Lee, John Singleton and Carl Franklin gave these guys meaty, juicy roles in serious, powerful films in which to showcase their talent. It really forced people to view black actors in a new light.''

The changing demographics of the movie audience has also helped African-American actors. While African-Americans make up 12 percent of the United States population, they account for as much as 25 percent of the domestic box office, or a projected $1.5 billion this year.

So enticing are these demographics that Black Entertainment Television and Ebony magazine have recently announced they will start a cable network next spring dedicated to showing films with African-American stars.

``There's an added economic impetus to having a quality black player in a movie,'' Shaye says. ``It creates an identification factor for a very strong component of the moviegoing audience, which happens to be the black community.''

African-American newcomers, too, are finding wider opportunities. Stage actor Jeffrey Wright won critical praise when he played the lead in ``Basquiat,'' about a talented and haunted '80s artist. Marianne Jean-Baptiste has a major role in the acclaimed Mike Leigh film ``Secrets and Lies.'' Sean Nelson, the teen-ager who broke out in the no-budget movie ``Fresh'' in 1994, plays alongside Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz in ``American Buffalo.'' And Deaundre Bonds plays a 15-year-old petty thief in a showcase role in ``Get on the Bus.''

Still, while many African-American actors acknowledge that they have come a long way since the days when their roles and salaries were limited, others see only certain stock roles open to them - the jock or the military officer or the doorman, like the obsequious concierge played by Obba Babatunde in Tom Hanks' ``That Thing You Do!''

``Those old types have not died,'' says Donald Bogle, the author of ``Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films.'' ``In many cases, Hollywood wants us to believe that they forget about race or are willing to overlook it, but they really don't. It's still there, and it still leads to a certain type of definition of a black character on screen. Not the old rigid stereotypes of the past, but still certain lines are drawn.''

That's because not enough has changed, says Spike Lee.

``We've always been in front of the camera,'' Lee says. ``The new territory is when are we going to have African-Americans in the booking departments of these studios, publicity departments, media departments, executives who green-light pictures, people who head development of these studios? That's where the power's at.''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1) ``Set It Off,'' an urban drama being released by New Line Cinema, features Queen Latifah, left, Kimberly Elise, Vivica Fox and Jada Pinkett.

(2) Spike Lee's ``Get on the Bus,'' about a group of African-American men journeying to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., features a large ensemble cast that includes many little-known actors.

(3) `It's also important to realize that many of these actors have been around for a long time, doing work, good work. They say the cream rises to the top. Maybe it's just a time in which the excellence of these actors is being recognized.'

Delroy Lindo

(4) `I just heard somewhere (Denzel Washington is) the fourth-most-popular male actor ... I think audiences, more and more, are beginning to accept actors - as opposed to actors with ethnic accouterments.'

New Line chairman Robert Shaye

on Denzel Washington (pictured)

(5) `Black actors, just now, belong to the mainstream. The next push is probably going to be for Asian performers, or whoever the next group is struggling to break that unstated barrier. Black actors have broken through.'

Morgan Freeman