Turman had his first prominent acting role at the age of 12 as Travis Younger in the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun, opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett Jr., Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961, Turman intensified his studies in high school.

Turman was born in New York City, New York. According to a DNA analysis, Turman shares maternal ancestry with the Edo people of Nigeria. Turman studied at High School of Performing Arts located in the Manhattan section of New York City, graduating in 1965.

Turman has been married three times and has three children. Turman was married to Ula M. Walker from 1965 until 1971. Together, Turman and Walker had three children. Turman married singer Aretha Franklin on April 11, 1978, at her father’s (C. L. Franklin) New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Turman and Franklin separated in 1982 and later divorced in 1984. Since 1992, Turman has been married to Jo-An Allen.

Turman’s television directorial accolades have been overshadowed only in part because of his bold and dignified presence in front of the camera. Given the opportunity, he directed an all White cast television show, Dynasty, directing season 3, episode 21, “The Vote”, which aired on ABC on March 16, 1983. This added an African-American presence to the cast and production team, before Diahann Carroll made her grand entrance being cast as Dominique Devereaux. This solidified Turman’s talent both in front and behind the camera.

The quality of Turman’s work has shown over the decades with his participation in such prominent TV movies as Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in 1994, Buffalo Soldiers, and Freedom Song. More notable films include Penitentiary II (1982), Gremlins (1984), Deep Cover (1992), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Men of Honor (2000), Sahara (2005), Kings of the Evening (2007), Burlesque (2010) and Super 8 (2011). In 2004, he joined the hit HBO series The Wire portraying the recurring role of Mayor Clarence Royce, becoming a full-time regular in 2006. His portrayal of Mayor Royce has earned him an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 2007 awards ceremony.

Turman was almost cast for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars. In a 2007 interview, Turman recalled: “That was in George Lucas’ book. Apparently George Lucas had me in mind for the role, and then thought that there might be too much controversy between a white Princess Leia and a black Han Solo – because those were the times – and he didn’t want to get into that. At the time, I had no idea. I just went to the audition, did it and got out of there.” In 2012, he began starring in House of Lies on Showtime as the father of the characters played by Don Cheadle and Larenz Tate. In 2016, he appeared in the Oprah Winfrey Network TV show Queen Sugar in which he played the father, Ernest Bordelon. The character died in season one, episode one.

Since The Wire, Turman guest-starred as a patient in the Scrubs episode “My Last Words”. Turman’s other television appearances include Hawaii Five-O (as Harley Dartson, 1973, “Tricks Are Not Treats”), the Twilight Zone segment “Paladin of the Lost Hour” (co-starring Danny Kaye with a script by Harlan Ellison), Matlock, Millennium, and the sitcom All of Us. In 2008, he won a Primetime Emmy award for his guest appearance on the HBO series In Treatment. He appeared in the ABC series Detroit 1-8-7. He is currently performing and producing a one-man show, Movin’ Man, about his life and plans a book as well.

In 2017, Turman was cast as Nate Lahey Sr. in 10 episodes in seasons 4 and 5 of the ABC drama How to Get Away With Murder. His character is the imprisoned father of Nate Lahey (Billy Brown), a former police officer, detective and lover to series star Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). Keating makes Turman’s character the face of a class action U.S Supreme Court case of mistreatment of minorities in the criminal justice system. The court finds Lahey Sr. to be mentally ill and during transfer to a mental facility he is shot and killed. 2018, Turman appeared on the legal drama Suits as Vic.