Rex Ingram (actor)

For the film director, producer, writer and actor of the same name, see Rex Ingram (director) (1892–1950)

Rex Ingram
File:Rexingram.jpg
Born	(1895-10-20)October 20, 1895 Cairo, Illinois, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1918-1969
Spouse(s)	Francine Everett (1936-1939)

Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an American stage, film, and television actor.

Early life and career

Ingram was born near Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi River; his father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee. 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 Northwestern University. 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, opposite Mickey Rooney), 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. The Hank Williams Story.

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 the interim, he invested in the Club Alabam, famed nightclub located in the Dunbar Hotel in South Central Los Angeles, with partners Joe Morris and Clarence Moore, reopening it as a jazz club.

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 minor work in television in the sixties, appearing in an episode each of I Spy and The Bill Cosby Show, both of which starred Bill Cosby, who used his influence to land him the roles.

Death

Shortly after filming a guest spot on The Bill Cosby Show, Ingram died of a heart attack at the age of 73. He was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Selected filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1918	Tarzan of the Apes		Uncredited
	Salomé		Uncredited
1923	The Ten Commandments	Israelite Slave	Uncredited
1927	The King of Kings	Undetermined Role	Uncredited
1929	The Four Feathers	Fuzzy Wuzzy Native	Uncredited
1933	The Emperor Jones	Court Crier	Uncredited
1936	The Green Pastures	Adam/De Lawd/Hezdrel
1939	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Jim
1940	The Thief of Bagdad	Djinn
1942	The Talk of the Town	Tilney
	Tulips Shall Grow	Narrator	Voice
1943	Cabin in the Sky	Lucifer Jr./Lucius Ferry
	Sahara	Sgt. Major Tambul
1944	Dark Waters	Pearson Jackson
1945	A Thousand and One Nights	Giant
1948	Moonrise	Mose
1949	Anna Lucasta	Joseph Lucasta
1955	Tarzan's Hidden Jungle	Sukulu Chieftain	Uncredited
1956	Congo Crossing	Dr. Leopold Gorman
1958	God's Little Acre	Uncle Felix
1959	Escort West	Nelson Water
	Watusi	Umbopa	Alternative title: The Quest for King Solomon's Mines
1960	Elmer Gantry	Preacher	Uncredited
1964	Your Cheatin' Heart	Tee-Tot
1967	Hurry Sundown	Professor Thurlow
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Climax!	Petraca	1 episode
1958	Whirlybirds	Joe	1 episode
1959	Black Saddle	Alex Booth	1 episode
1961	The Rifleman	Thaddeus	1 episode
1962	Sam Benedict	Judge Larkin	1 episode
1965	I Spy	Dr. Bingham	1 episode
1966	Branded	Hannibal	1 episode
1967–1968	Daktari	Natoma Chief Makuba	2 episodes
1968	Cowboy in Africa	Dr. Tom Merar	1 episode
1969	Gunsmoke	Juba	1 episode
	The Bill Cosby Show	George	1 episode

External links

• Rex Ingram at the Internet Broadway Database
• Rex Ingram at the Internet Movie Database
• Rex Ingram at Find a Grave