The Black Experience in Hollywood

Leading African-American Actors, Actresses, and Filmmakers

Here is a list of selected African-American actors and directors from the classic age, with links to a listing of their movies that are currently available on VHS or DVD (or, in a few cases, to a tribute article on this site with much more information). You'll find links to other more contemporary stars in the movie listing in the next section.

• Eddie "Rochester" Anderson made 45 films beginning in the 1930s, but became best known for his role on Jack Benny's TV show.
  
  
• Louis Armstrong appeared in 31 films, almost always as himself. The link will take you to a special tribute article I wrote on his 100th birthday.
  
  
• Louise Beavers was a veteran of 130 films starting in the 1920s, most notably 1934's Imitation of Life, in which she played a part that was given equal importance to that of the white co-star, Claudette Colbert.
  
  
• Harry Belafonte appeared in several interesting films in the 50s, then settled into his singing and TV career, appearing in several films in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, mostly playing himself.
  
  
• Dorothy Dandridge was the tragic star of Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess who got her start as an extra in the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races.
  
  
• Stepin Fetchit was the first real African-American "star." His flamboyant lifestyle bore no resemblance to his on-screen persona.
  
  
• Lena Horne was the first of a new generation of Black actresses who rejected stereotypes. She is still vibrant in her 80s.
  
  
• Noble Johnson was an influential actor and producer who started the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, the first studio to portray Blacks in a non-stereotyped way.
  
  
• Charles Lampkin was the first African-American to appear in a science fiction film, Five (1951). He also appeared in Cocoon and a dozen other films.
  
  
• Hattie McDaniel appeared in 75 films from 1932 to 1949, including Gone With the Wind, and was the first African-American to win an Oscar.
  
  
• Oscar Micheaux was a pioneering director, producer, and writer who made films for mostly Black audiences from 1918 until 1948.
  
  
• Juanita Moore won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role in the 1959 version of Imitation of Life.
  
  
• James Edwards was the first black actor to portray non-stereotyped characters in films such as Home of the Brave (1949).
  
  
• Gordon Parks was the director of Shaft (1971). His first film, The Learning Tree (1969), was one of the first 25 films chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry.
  
  
• Sidney Poitier was the first Black man to win an Oscar (1963), and received an AFI Life Achievement Award in 1992.
  
  
• Paul Robeson may have been the greatest African-American actor who ever lived, but his career was tragically curtailed by the rabid anti-communism of the times.
  
  
• Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was a great dancer known primarily for his movies with Shirley Temple.
  
  
• Ethel Waters made only a dozen movies, but was once one of the country's highest-paid entertainers as a singer.

Part I: Introduction

Part II: Recommended Web Sites on African-Americans and Hollywood

Part III: Leading African-American Actors, Actresses, and Filmmakers

Part IV: Significant Classic Films With African-American Stars or Racial Themes

Other classic movie history articles that you'll enjoy.