Actress and director LaTanya Richardson Jackson shared details about what first attracted her to her husband, Samuel L. Jackson, during a guest appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.”
The 73-year-old, who was promoting her recent Broadway play “The Piano Lesson,” has been married to Samuel since 1980. The couple also shares a daughter.
In the Nov. 3 interview, when the show’s host Jimmy Fallon asked about her first impression of Samuel upon meeting in college, LaTanya claimed that the actor favored Clarence Williams III’s character Linc Hayes from “The Mod Squad.” In the series, Williams had an afro and rocked smaller glasses.
She said, “Oh man are you kidding? He was so fine… I talk old school because I’m 73. So I think about people from back in the day, you think about Linc Hayes. Clarence Williams III has passed on now, but Linc Hayes, Sam looked exactly like Linc Hayes.”
While describing Samuel’s physical appearance, “The Fighting Temptations” star added, “He had a huge afro and these little glasses, and he was really tall. I think he’s lost an inch or so, but he was about 6’4 ‘Mod Squad’ you know what I mean. Just down. He was, you know, a brother.”
Further in the conversation, Fallon assumed that LaTanya was instantly smitten by Samuel, given how highly she talked about her husband. He said, “And you’re like ‘Oh, that’s I think I see something there,’ ” to which LaTanya responded, “Well, not quite like that, but I said ‘I could work with that.’ It was something.”
Toward the end of the interview, LaTanya revealed that the couple had been together for 54 years. Following her admission, Fallon asked if LaTanya liked her husband and she quipped, “That’s an entire show.”
Earlier this year, in an interview with PEOPLE magazine, LaTanya and Samuel revealed the key to maintaining their successful relationship. The “A Raisin In the Sun” Broadway star shared that the couple made a pact early on to stay together despite their hardships.
LaTanya said, “In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother. Since everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African- American family.”
She continued, “That it’s just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false. In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out.’ “
Samuel would ultimately admit that their union works because of the love and respect the pair has for each other. He said, “It’s two people who respect each other, love each other and look out for each other.”
