Ellen Holly and Phylicia Rashad Pay Tribute to Al Freeman Jr at Howard University

It was a star-studded affair for the late Albert C. Freeman Jr. who was remembered at a memorial service on Monday for the roles he played as an iconic American stage and screen actor and as a deeply passionate Howard University professor.

Friends and admirers spoke of Freeman's disciplined approach to acting, a skill honed from innumerable stage and screen productions over a 30-year career. Images in a slide show that played through the service showed Freeman sharing scenes with Frank Sinatra, Sidney Portier, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Cicely Tyson and Denzel Washington.

Al Freeman Jr. Dead at 78

Al Freeman Jr. (born Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr., on March 21, 1934, in San Antonio, Texas), passed away on Thursday at the age of 78, Howard University said on Friday.

"It is with tremendous sadness that the passing of our beloved Professor Al Freeman, Jr. is confirmed," Kim James Bey, chair of the university's theater department said in a statement. Freeman was a faculty member at the university.

Freeman is best known to soap opera fans from his long-running role as Captain Ed Hall in ONE LIFE TO LIVE, opposite Ellen Holly's Carla. Pianist Hazel Scott performed at Ed and Carla's 1973 wedding ceremony, delayed several times by the Watergate hearings. Freeman also played Assistant District Attorney Ben Lee in THE EDGE OF NIGHT.

Freeman was best known as an actor of theater, television and film but also was a writer and director.