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Suzanne de Passe grew up in Harlem, the daughter of a Harlem-born mother of Jamaican descent and a father with Haitian and French roots, and her birth year is given as 1946, 1947 or 1948. After graduating from Syracuse University in 1968 she worked at New York’s Cheetah nightclub. Her friend Cindy Birdsong of the Supremes introduced her to Berry Gordy, who hired her as his creative assistant, and she shaped the Jackson 5’s wardrobe, choreography concepts and live act. She co-wrote Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, and became the first person of color nominated for the best original screenplay Oscar.

As president of Motown Productions she executive produced and wrote Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever in 1983 and Motown Returns to the Apollo in 1985, both Emmy winners, then produced the Temptations and Jacksons miniseries. In 1989 she executive produced CBS’s Lonesome Dove, which won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Peabody. Her company, de Passe Entertainment, formed in 1992, made Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, the Zenon films and Showtime at the Apollo, and in 2024 she received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Ahmet Ertegun Award.

• Vanessa Williams played de Passe in The Jacksons: An American Dream.
• Lonesome Dove earned her induction into the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
• Zenon: The Zequel drew Disney Channel’s highest rating for an original movie at the time in 2001.
• Harvard Business School wrote two case studies on her and her company, and she lectured there.
• She married actor Paul Le Mat in 1978 at the Beverly Hills Hotel with Diana Ross as matron of honor.