Hollywood’s Black Pearls
1901- Booker T Washington, a black educator and author is invited to the White House by Teddy Roosevelt, and race riots break out all over the US.
1955- Rosa Parks, a black working class woman, refuses to vacate her seat on a segregated bus, triggering off the Civil Rights movement.
1963- Martin Luther King Jr, tells a rally of thousands “I have a dream” of a world here Black and White people can co exist peacefully.
2009- Barack Hussein Obama became the first non white, mixed origins American to formally be sworn in as the President of America.
From a time when riots broke out because a black person was invited to the White House, to now when a non White person of Black parentage actually occupies the White House, America has come a long way. Obama’s rise to power is in itself a tale of the underdog winning . Comming from a non political background, with not much backing, he was not even considered a contender, with Hilary Clinton being the clear favorite. But he fought his way up “inch by inch” and astounded every one in August winning the nomination, and in November actually won the Presidential election. In a country, where people of colored origins where once barred from entering restaurants, buses or made it sit in separate corners, this is a major leap.
Just as the way Obama conquered the White House, there have been a host of actors, in Hollywood, who overcame racial prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination to emerge as leading actors in their own right. Some have been rated as the greatest comic talents( Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Sammy Davis Jr), some emerged as superstars in their own right( Denzel Washington, Will Smith) , and some have made their mark as great character actors( Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, Laurence Fishburne). But all of these men have created their own niche, their own identity and reputation. This post is a humble tribute to some of these great Black actors or whom i call “Hollywood’s Black Pearls”.
Poitier with Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston during civil rights march
For a major part of Hollywood’s early years in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s Black Actors, were relegated to playing clowns, sidekicks, nasty goons, servants. If there was a central black character, he would usually be like an innocent victim, who needs the White man to fight for him, as in To Kill a Mockingbird. But never as a leading hero, that was a big no no in Hollywood. In fact so bad was it, that at times, White actors would paint their faces black, and speak in a strange accent. And then in 1958, came an actor, who defied stereotype by getting equal footage along with a white actor, Tony Curtis, in The Defiant Ones, and becomming the first Black actor, to be nominated for an Oscar in Best Actor category. Born in a dirt poor family in Bahamas, he worked his way up the ladder appearing in side roles and characters, before The Defiant Ones made people take notice of him. Sir Sidney Poitier, one of the greatest actors of Hollywood, a screen legend, would be Hollywood’s Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. He was the role model and inspiration to other black actors, trying their fortune in Hollywood. He was the first person to break the glass ceiling, and proved that even Black actors could do leading roles. And what roles, a handyman who helps out a group of nuns in Lilies of the Field, a teacher who has to deal with a class of unruly students in To Sir With Love and an educated Black doctor, who has an affair with a white woman in Guess Who is Comming to Dinner. Above all, his character of Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective, who has to battle racism and prejudice, while investigating crime in a small Southern town, in In The Heat of the Night, would remain forever one of the most memorabe portrayals on the screen.
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon
Born in San Francisco, his parents used to work in the postal department. His first major role on screen was that of the crooked cop in Witness(1985), and the same year he gained fame for his portrayal of Whoopi Goldberg’s abusive, philandering husband in The Color Purple. He however shot into stardom, playing the more sober LAPD Detective Roger Murtaugh to Mel Gibson’s suicidal and paranoid Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon, which later went onto become a succesful series in its own right. Danny Glover, a great actor, who also has been a student activist, fought for trade unions and a liberal figure too. Apart from Lethal Weapon series, other famous movies of his have been Predator II, Maverick, Angels in Outfield, Operation Dumbo Drop. He has also given the voice over for animation flicks like Prince of Egypt and Antz. In 2009 he will also be making his directorial debut with Toussaint, a biopic about a Haitian freedom fighter.
Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda
If not for anything, just his performance as Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda, about the real life events in Rwand, would be enough to earn him his place in the Hall of Fame. As an embattled hotel manager, trying to protect refugees who are victims of ethnic rivalry, Don Cheadle delivers one of the most restrained, controlled performances, but yet so moving and emphatic. At every stage you feel his anguish and pain. His other notable roles have been as a trigger happy dude in Devil in a Blue Dress, one of the members of Ocean’s Eleven, a cop with a broken family background in Crash. Quite a brilliant, though often underrated actor.
After Sidney Poitier, he is the second Black actor to win the Best Actor Oscar. He has been Steve Biko, Malcom X and Rubin Carter on screen. He has played gangsters, cops, lawyers, army men, boxers, coach on screen. One of the fine
st Black actors, a superstar in his own right, a legend in his own right, Denzel Hayes Washington Jr, aka Denzel Washington needs no second introduction. He can be a ruthless American Gangster, a sleazy cop( Training Day), and yet a principled lawyer fighting for the rights of his gay client( Philadelphia). He could be a rebellious soldier( Glory) as well as a Colonel digging for the truth( Courage Under Fire). Some of his best performances have been in Philadelphia, Glory, Malcolm X, Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress and the Hurricane. He has acted as a leading man in all kinds of genres like noir( Devil in a Blue Dress), horror( Fallen), biopics(Malcolm X), sports movies ( Remember the Titans), costume dramas( Much Ado About Nothing) and sci fi( Deja Vu). Oh yeah, he also been the inspiration for our Bollywood movie makers in movies like Aks( Fallen), Ek Ajnabee( Man on Fire), Zeher( Out of Time), Phir Milenge( Philadelphia), Tathasthu( John Q).
Forrest Whittaker as Idi Amin
He bought to life one of history’s most notorious dictators on screen. Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, came alive, for a good 2 hours, and the man who made it, Forrest Whittaker. The Last King of Scotland, a movie, set around the life of Idi Amin, had Forrest Whittaker giving one of the best performances on screen. Not surprisingly he was the hands down winner of Best Actor that year, making him only the 4th Black actor to receive that honor. Born in Texas, he was raised in California later. His first major role was that of jazz musician Charlie Parker, in Clint Eastwood’s biopic Bird. In 1999, he also appeared in another great role as the samurai wielding gangster in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, directed by Jim Jarsmuch. He also appeared in thrillers like Phone Booth, Panic Room and sci fi flicks like Species.
Foxx with the Oscar
ric Marlon Bishop, but he became more famous as Jamie Foxx. He rose to prominence as a cocky, but talented football player who has a conflict with his coach in Any Given Sunday. In an ensemble cast featuring Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Cameron Diaz, he was noticed well enough. He later made an impact as a LA cab driver who has to drive around a hit man in Michael Mann’s Collateral, and the same year he also won the Best Actor for his role as blind R&B singer Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. He has since then established himself well with movies like Miami Vice, The Kingdom and Dreamgirls. Incidentally Jamie Foxx won the award against stiff competition from Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda, making him only the 3rd Black Actor to win an Oscar.
Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
To most of the movie goers in India, he would be familiar as Morpheus in the Matrix Trilogy. As Neo’s mentor, and the man who guides him to his destiny, he has made his mark as one of the most memorable sci fi characters. Morpheus of course was Laurence Fishburne, again another great actor, and while that role did make him famous, he has acted in other memorable movies also. A sadistic abusive husband in What’s Love got to do with it, the biopic of singer Tina Turner. A cop investigating a murder along with Kevin Bacon in Mystic River. Other well known movies of his are Just Cause, Boyz N The Hood, King of New York, Othello to name a few.
He has been God, as well as President of the US. A man famous for his dignified, sober portrayals, usually playing the mentor to the hero or the heroine. Morgan Freeman, one of the finest actors, who has excelled on screen with some brilliant portrayals. Can we ever forget the smooth talking, but deep inside insecure Red from The Shawshank Redemption? Or the worldly wise, but thoughtful detective in Se7en? Or Dr. Alex Cross in Kiss the Girls? Ok and what about Eddie Scrap Iron Duris in Million Dollar Baby? His deep bass voice made him suitable to be a narrator also, and yes he also played characters with shades of grey in Outbreak, Hard Rain and Chain Reaction. Right now he would be appearing as Nelson Mandela on screen, as well as in the movie adaptation of Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. 
nd great actor. His performance in Pulp Fiction as the hamburger loving, bible quoting hitman, was a cracker. As was his role in A Time to Kill, based on John Grisham’s novel, as a father, who is on trial for murdering the white guys who had raped and killed his daughter. Other memorable roles of his have been in Die Hard III, as a Harlem shopkeeper, who helps out Bruce Willis, a gun runner in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Jedi Master Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels, an accident prone man in Manoj Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, Rufus in Kill Bill Vol 2, a hot tempered taxi driver in Changing Lines( redone in Hindi as Taxi 9211, with Nana Patekar doing the role), a deeply religious Southern farmer in Black Snake Moan. 
Will Smith in Men in Black
And finally, you may hate him, or love him, but no way you can ignore this man. He has tangled with the elite of Beverly Hills, been a crazy professor, a doctor who can speak to animals, and by the way he also has given a voice over for a donkey. Yes one of the best comic talents, and a great entertainer. He has made the audience roll over with performances in Nutty Professor, Trading Places, while playing more serious roles in Dreamgirls. But we will forever him as the wise cracking, Det Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, with his trademark grin, his laughter, and his antics. Yeah i am referring to Edward Reggie Murphy or the person whom he all know as Eddie Murphy. 
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
ratnakar bhai saab!!maza aa gaya!!this will go down as one of the best i’ve read on this site!!
hollywood has actually been liberated before the american society in that sense, simply because they realized that the essence of a film is more important than their indifference!!i mean you cannot have tom cruise playing ALI, it has to be a black!!
@Ahmad thanks for comments, yes u got it right, and i think Hollywood has woken up earlier to the reality.
@ Bipin: Thanks for ur comments. There are some others whom i did not mention too like Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, Wesley Snipes.
ratnakar,
this most definitely is the best article I have read on PFC. very well researched, very well written and truly amazing. keep it coming bro. very very nice !!! KUDOS. I cant think of anyone you have left out of here, everything worth a mention is listed. awesome…
Bernie Mac…RIP
I loved Laurence Fishbourne’s character in the classic war movie Apocalypse now.
Ratnakar, thanks for your thorough post. I’m sure you also recall that Denzel Washington also appeared in Mira Nair’s lovely Missippi Masala.
What about women? There have been some amazing African-American actresses who are equally noteworthy, not the least of whom is Halle Berry, who’s turned in many amazing performances. There are too many others to start listing here.
@ Evelyn, regarding the heroines, yes there have been many Halle Berry, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Basset to name a few, but again that would be a separate post altogether.
Also there have been some other actors like Sammy Davis Jr, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Richard Pryor, Carl Weathers whom i left out. Am not sure how many people now would know them, most of them appeared in the older films.
eddie murphy and arsenio hall in “Coming to America” were hilarious….also there was a TV series “Good Times” about an African-American family in the Chicago projects….twas really good…
@ RS: great post.. like always. keep ‘em komin!
@ RS: need more dope on morgan freeman… itnse se kaam nahi chalga… wink!
@ Magik, yeah am looking at a full fledged one on Freeman, he is one of my favorites.
@Ratnakar
great post. i appreciate the amount of research that might have gone into this. thanks for this.
Spike Lee’s Malcom X is supposed to be very good..i hvnt been able to get its DVD..been looking fr it since couple of yrs
nice read..my fav is dave chappelle..very racist and very funny…he is in a league of his own..n pls dont mention chris tucker..mofo doesn’t act unless jackie chan is in the same movie.