Lorenzo Tucker (June 27, 1907 – August 19, 1986), known as the "Black
Valentino," was an American stage and screen actor who played the romantic lead in the early black films of
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 ...
.
Acting career
Born in Philadelphia, Tucker started acting at Temple University, where he was a student.
Tucker also appeared early in his career with
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...
on cross-country tours.
From 1926 to 1946, Tucker appeared in 18 of Micheaux's films, including ''When Men Betray'' (1928), ''
Wages of Sin
''Wages of Sin'' is the fourth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It is the first Arch Enemy album to feature the vocals of Angela Gossow. It is also the first album they use Standard-C tuning, which they still use ...
'' (1929), ''Easy Street'' (1930), ''Harlem Big Show'', ''
Veiled Aristocrats
''Veiled Aristocrats'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code race film written, directed, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. The film deals with the theme of " passing" by mixed-race African Americans to avoid racial discrimination. It is a rem ...
'' (1932), ''Ten Minutes to Live'' (1932), ''Harlem After Midnight'' (1934), ''Temptation'' (1935), and
''Underworld'' (1937).
He became known as the "Black Valentino" because of his good looks and role as the romantic lead in the early black cinema.
[ Tucker noted the irony of the appellation because he believed ]Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...
had a darker complexion than Tucker.[ He became a movie star to black America and often was mentioned in the leading black newspapers.][ One of Micheaux and Tucker's more controversial films was ''Veiled Aristocrats'', where Tucker played a black man who passed as white and tried to persuade his sister to pass for white.][ He also made an cameo appearance with ]Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...
in 1933's ''The Emperor Jones
''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...
''.
Tucker was also a successful stage actor, appearing on Broadway in ''The Constant Sinner
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', ''Ol' Man Satan'', and ''Humming Sam''. His most controversial role came in ''The Constant Sinner'' in which he portrayed the pimp Money Johnson and in which Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
was his prostitute Babe Gordon. Although miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...
was outlawed in some parts of the Southern U.S., the play included a scene in which Tucker kissed West. When the play opened in Washington, D.C., the press was outraged to see a black man kissing a white woman, and demands were made that the scene be excised from the play. West rejected demands, and the play left Washington.[ The ]Shuberts
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...
refused to permit Tucker to play the role, and white actor George Givot
George David Givot (February 18, 1903 – June 7, 1984) was a Russian Empire-born American comedian and actor on Broadway and in vaudeville, movies, television and radio. He was known for speaking in a comedic fake Greek dialect and was styled th ...
was hired to play the role wearing blackface. Despite the Shuberts' decision, West cast Tucker in a few minor parts, including the role of a Spaniard who walks across the stage. When a woman asks West's character who that is, West responded "Oh, he's Spanish — he's my Spanish fly
The Spanish fly (''Lytta vesicatoria'') is an aposematic emerald-green beetle in the blister beetle family (Meloidae). It is distributed across Eurasia.
The species and others in its family were used in traditional apothecary preparations ...
!"
Later years
During World War II, Tucker was a tail gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps.[ After the war, Tucker appeared in ]Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...
's film ''Reet, Petite and Gone
''Reet, Petite, and Gone'' is a 1947 American musical race film produced and released by Astor Pictures. It was the first feature film directed by short-subject director William Forest Crouch and stars Louis Jordan and June Richmond.
Plot
...
''; in the early 1950s, he returned to the stage appearing in a London production of '' Anna Lucasta''.
Tucker later became an autopsy technician for the New York City medical examiner, where he worked on the bodies of Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
and Nina Mae McKinney
Nina Mae McKinney (June 12, 1912 – May 3, 1967) was an American actress who worked internationally during the 1930s and in the postwar period in theatre, film and television, after beginning her career on Broadway and in Hollywood. Dubbed ...
.[
Tucker moved to Hollywood permanently in 1977, where he continued to seek work. He took the nighttime security guard job, he said, so his days would be free for interviews.
Tucker died of lung cancer at age 79 at his home in Hollywood, California. He left a widow, Pauline Segura Tucker. His funeral took place at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Hollywood, California.]
Honors and awards
In 1974, Tucker was inducted into the Black Film Makers Hall of Fame,[ and he received the Audelco Recognition Award in 1981.][ On an episode of '']The Cosby Show
''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby, which aired Thursday nights for eight seasons on NBC between September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on an upper middle-class African- ...
'', titled "Denise Drives", Clair Huxtable
Clair Huxtable is a fictional character who appears on the American sitcom ''The Cosby Show'' (1984–1992). Portrayed by actress Phylicia Rashad, Clair, the wife of Cliff Huxtable and mother of their five children, is the matriarch of the show' ...
quizzes Denise Huxtable on car safety asking if she should stop her car for a stranger on a dark rainy night with "hair like Lorenzo Tucker, eyes like Billy Dee and a smile like Nat King Cole."
References
Bibliography
* Richard Grupenhoff. ''The Black Valentino: The Stage and Screen Career of Lorenzo Tucker''. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Lorenzo
1907 births
1986 deaths
African-American male actors
American male film actors
American male silent film actors
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Male actors from Philadelphia
Temple University alumni
Burials at Riverside National Cemetery
20th-century American male actors
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American people