American singer Tyrese Gibson will star as late singer-songwriter Teddy Pendergrass in a biopic. Pendergrass broke out in the early 1970s as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, and became a massive success as a R&B solo artist with five consecutive platinum albums, reports variety.com.

He suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1982 traffic accident that left him a quadriplegic, learned how to sing again and returned to perform at the Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1985.