Juano G. "Juano" Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970) was a Puerto Rican stage and film actor who was a pioneer in the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

film industry. He made his silent picture debut in '' The Life of General Villa'', and talking picture debut in an

Oscar Micheaux Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled ...

film, ''

The Girl from Chicago ''The Girl from Chicago'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code drama film produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux, with an all-African-American cast including lead actors Grace Smith and Carl Mahon. The story concerns a federal agent who falls in love ...

'', which was directed at black audiences. Hernández also performed in a series of dramatic roles in mainstream Hollywood movies. His participation in the film ''

Intruder in the Dust ''Intruder in the Dust '' is a 1948 crime novel written by American author William Faulkner. Taking place in Mississippi, it revolves around an African American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man. Overview The novel focuses on Lucas B ...

'' (1949) earned him a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

nomination for "New Star of the Year." Later in life he returned to Puerto Rico, where he intended to make a film based on the life of

Sixto Escobar Sixto Escobar (March 23, 1913 – November 17, 1979) was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. Competing in the bantamweight division, he became Puerto Rico's first world champion. Escobar was born in Barceloneta and raised in San Juan. There he r ...

Early years

Hernández was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

to Puerto Rican parents, Jose Guillermo and Clara de Ponce. With no formal education, he worked as a sailor and settled in Rio de Janeiro. He was hired by a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

and became an entertainer, making his first appearance as an acrobat in Rio de Janeiro in 1922. He later lived in the Caribbean and made his living as a professional boxer, fighting under the name Kid Curley.

Vaudeville and the stage

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he worked in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and minstrel shows, sang in a church choir and was a radio script writer. During his spare time he perfected his diction by studying

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, thus enabling himself to work in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

. He co-starred in radio's first all-black

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

''We Love and Learn''. He also participated in the following radio shows: ''Mandrake the Magician'' (opposite Raymond Edward Johnson and Jessica Tandy), ''The Shadow'', ''Tennessee Jed,'' and ''Against the Storm''. He became a household name after his participation in ''The Cavalcade of America'', a series which promoted

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

and inventiveness. He appeared in the Broadway shows ''Strange Fruit'' and ''Set My People Free''. His Broadway debut was in the chorus of the 1927 musical production '' Show Boat''.

Film career

Juano Hernandez in Stars in My Crown trailer

Hernández appeared in 26 films throughout his career. He portrayed a revolutionary soldier in the silent film '' The Life of General Villa'', and his first "talkie" films were small roles in films produced by

, who made

race films Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

for black audiences. His talking film debut was Micheaux's ''

'' (1932), in which he was cast as a Cuban racketeer. He also has a speaking part, although uncredited, as a police officer in the 1932 crime drama and musical '' Harlem Is Heaven'', which stars

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

. In 1949, he acted in his first mainstream film, based on

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

's novel, ''

'', in which he played the role of Lucas Beauchamp, a poor Mississippi farmer unjustly accused of the murder of a white man. The film earned him a Golden Globe nomination for "New Star of the Year"."Early Black Cinema", ''True West Magazine'', August 2005, p. 22 The film was listed as one of the ten best of the year by the New York Times. Faulkner said of the film: "I'm not much of a moviegoer, but I did see that one. I thought it was a fine job. That Juano Hernández is a fine actor--and man, too." In the 1950 western '' Stars In My Crown'', directed by

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

, starring Joel McCrea, Hernández plays a

freed slave A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

who refuses to sell his land and faces an angry

lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica * Lynch's Crater, Queensland, Australia England * River Lynch, Hertfordshire * The Lynch, an island in the River ...

mob. He was singled out for praise for his performance in the 1950 film '' The Breaking Point'' with

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

. ''The New York Times'' called his performance "quietly magnificent." He also received favorable notices for his performances in ''

Trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

'' (1955), about a politically charged court case, in which he played the judge, and

Sidney Lumet Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award: four for Best Director for ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), ''Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975), ''Network'' (1976), ...

's ''

The Pawnbroker ''The Pawnbroker'' (1961) is a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant which tells the story of Sol Nazerman, a concentration camp survivor who suffers flashbacks of his past Nazi imprisonment as he tries to cope with his daily life operating a pawn sho ...

'' (1965). More than 50 years after its initial release, in 2001, film historian Donald Bogle wrote that ''Intruder in the Dust'' broke new ground in the cinematic portrayal of blacks, and Hernández's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."

Television appearances

Over the years, Hernández made guest appearances on a dozen U.S. network television programs, appearing three times in 1960 and 1961 on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

series, '' Adventures in Paradise'', starring Gardner McKay. In 1959, he starred in the ''

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was ren ...

'' production of the

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

short story '' An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''. Other television shows in which Hernandez appeared were '' Naked City'', '' The Defenders'', ''

The Dick Powell Show ''The Dick Powell Show'' is an American television anthology series that ran on NBC from September 26, 1961, until September 17, 1963, primarily sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company. Overview The series was an anthology of various dramas ...

'' and ''

Studio One Studio One or Studio 1 may refer to: * Studio One (software), digital audio workstation software, developed by PreSonus * ''Studio One'' (American TV series), a 1948–1958 American television anthology series * ''Studio One'' (Emirati TV progra ...

''.

Later years

Hernández returned to Puerto Rico late in his life. Together with Julio Torregrosa he wrote a script for a movie about the life of Puerto Rico's first boxing champion,

. He was unable to get funding in Puerto Rico and therefore he translated the

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. He sent it to several companies in Hollywood and had it almost sold at the time of his death. In the last two years of his life he appeared in three films, '' The Extraordinary Seaman'' (1969) with David Niven, ''

The Reivers ''The Reivers: A Reminiscence'', published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. Faulkner previously won this award for his book ''A Fable'', ...

'' (1969) with

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

, and ''

They Call Me Mister Tibbs! ''They Call Me Mister Tibbs!'' is a 1970 American DeLuxe Color crime drama film directed by Gordon Douglas. The second installment in a trilogy, the release was preceded by '' In the Heat of the Night'' (1967) and followed by '' The Organizati ...

'' (1970) with

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...

. He died in San Juan on July 17, 1970, of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

2 days before his 74th birthday, and was interred at Cementerio Buxeda Memorial Park, Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico.

Filmography

* '' The Life of General Villa'' (1914) ... Revolutionary Soldier (uncredited) * ''

'' (1932) .... Gomez * '' Harlem Is Heaven'' (1932) .... Cop (uncredited) * ''

Lying Lips ''Lying Lips'' is a 1939 American melodrama race film written and directed by Oscar Micheaux who co-produced the film with aviator Hubert Fauntlenroy Julian, starring Edna Mae Harris, and Robert Earl Jones (the father of James Earl Jones). ''Lyi ...

'' (1939) .... Rev. Bryson * '' The Notorious Elinor Lee'' (1940) ... John Arthur * ''

'' (1949) .... Lucas Beauchamp * '' Young Man with a Horn'' (1950) .... Art Hazzard * '' Stars in My Crown'' (1950) .... Uncle Famous Prill * '' The Breaking Point'' (1950) .... Wesley Park * '' Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955) .... Eddie Yeager * ''

'' (1955) .... Judge Theodore Motley * ''

Ransom! ''Ransom!'' is a 1956 American crime drama film examining the reactions of parents, police, and the public to a kidnapping. Written by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume, the film is based on a popular episode of ''The United States Steel Hour'' tit ...

'' (1956) .... Jesse Chapman aka Uncle Jesse * '' Something of Value'' (1957) .... Njogu, Oath Giver * ''

The Mark of the Hawk ''The Mark of the Hawk'' (also called ''Accused'') is a 1957 drama film, directed by Michael Audley with a screenplay by Lloyd Young (better known for his sound work on other films) and H. Kenn Carmichael. The film stars Eartha Kitt and Sidney ...

'' (1958) .... Amugu * '' St. Louis Blues'' (1958) .... Rev. Charles Handy * '' Machete'' (1958) .... Bernardo * ''

Sergeant Rutledge ''Sergeant Rutledge'' is a 1960 American Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Woody Strode and Billie Burke. Six decades later, the film continues to attract attention because it was one o ...

'' (1960) .... Sgt. Matthew Luke Skidmore * '' The Sins of Rachel Cade'' (1961) .... Kalanumu * ''

Two Loves ''Two Loves'' is a 1961 American drama film directed by Charles Walters and starring Shirley MacLaine, Laurence Harvey, Jack Hawkins, and Nobu McCarthy. It is based on the book ''Spinster'' by Sylvia Ashton-Warner. It was entered into the 11 ...

'' (1961) .... Chief Rauhuia * ''Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed'' (1961) (TV) .... Standing Bear * ''

Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man ''Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man'' is a 1962 American adventure film directed by Martin Ritt based on Ernest Hemingway's semi-autobiographical character Nick Adams, and featuring Richard Beymer as Adams. A.E. Hotchner wrote the screenpla ...

'' (1962) .... Bugs * ''

'' (1964) .... Mr. Smith * '' The Extraordinary Seaman'' (1969) .... Ali Shar * ''

'' (1969) .... Uncle Possum * ''

'' (1970) .... Mealie Williamson (final film role)

References

External links

* * * *
Juano Hernandez in Hollywood Cinema at ''Centro Voices''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Juano 1896 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American male actors Male actors from San Juan, Puerto Rico Male actors from Los Angeles Puerto Rican male actors Puerto Rican people of Brazilian descent Puerto Rican radio actors Vaudeville performers