1895-10-20 ( 129 years old ) in Cairo, Illinois, USA
Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Ingram graduated from the Northwestern University medical school in 1919 and was the first African-American man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from there. He went to Hollywood as a young man where he was literally discovered on a street corner by the casting director for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), starring Elmo Lincoln. He made his (uncredited) screen debut in that film and had many other small roles, usually as a generic black native, such as in the Tarzan films.
With the arrival of sound, his presence and powerful voice became an asset and he went on to memorable roles in The Green Pastures (1936), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the 1939 MGM version), The Thief of Bagdad (1940—perhaps his best-known film appearance—as the genie), The Talk of the Town (1942), and Sahara (1943).
From 1929, he also appeared on stage, making his debut on Broadway. He appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, with his final role coming in Kwamina in 1961. He was in the original cast of Haiti (1938), Cabin in the Sky (1940), and St. Louis Woman (1946). He is one of the few actors to have played both God (in The Green Pastures) and the Devil (in Cabin in the Sky). In 1966 he played Tee-Tot in the movie Your Cheatin' Heart.
Ingram was arrested for violating the Mann Act in 1948. Pleading guilty to the charge of transporting a teenage girl to New York for immoral purposes, he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. He served just ten months of his sentence, but the incident had a serious effect on his career for the next six years.
In 1962, he became the first African-American actor to be hired for a contract role on a soap opera, when he appeared on The Brighter Day. He had other work in television in the 1950s and 1960s.
Rex Ingram died of a heart attack at the age of 73.
[biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
Movies
Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad
2008-05-27
Journey to Shiloh
1968-05-10
Hurry Sundown
1967-02-09
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964-11-04
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
1961-05-24
Desire in the Dust
1960-10-10
Elmer Gantry
1960-07-07
Watusi
1959-03-25
Escort West
1959-01-23
Anna Lucasta
1958-11-01
God's Little Acre
1958-09-23
The Ten Commandments
1956-10-05
Congo Crossing
1956-07-01
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
1955-02-16
Moonrise
1948-10-01
Shoe Shine Jasper
1947-02-28
John Henry and the Inky-Poo
1946-09-06
Adventure
1945-12-28
A Thousand and One Nights
1945-07-20
Dark Waters
1944-11-21
Jasper's Paradise
1944-10-13
Sahara
1943-09-22
Fired Wife
1943-09-04
Cabin in the Sky
1943-03-24
The Talk of the Town
1942-08-20
The Gay Knighties
1941-08-22
Hoola Boola
1941-06-27
The Thief of Bagdad
1940-02-19
Let My People Live
1939-03-10
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939-02-10
The Green Pastures
1936-08-01
Harlem After Midnight
1934-01-01
Emperor Jones
1933-09-29
The Four Feathers
1929-06-01
The King of Kings
1927-04-19
The Ten Commandments
1923-11-23
Tarzan of the Apes
1918-01-27
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