Actor Robert Hooks has had quite a month: On Oct. 18, Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser proclaimed it “Robert Hooks Day,” complete with a ceremony at city hall and a reception at Busboys and Poets. The following day, the D.C. native was honored at a gala celebration at the Lincoln Theatre to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the DC Black Repertory Company, the theater group he founded in 1971.

You may not recognize his name, but Hooks, 81, has been a working actor since the 1960s, when he landed a lead role on “N.Y.P.D.” — one of the first African American actors to star on a television drama. Movie fans know him as Admiral Morrow in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” But Hooks’s first, and true, love has always been live theater: As a young actor, he founded the Negro Ensemble Company in New York.

We talked recently to Hooks about his life on the stage, roles for African American actors and the state of black theater companies today.