: ''For the film director, producer, writer and actor, see
Rex Ingram (director)
Rex Ingram (born Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock, 15 January 1892 – 21 July 1950) was an Irish film director, producer, writer, and actor. Director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director".Soares, André. ''Bey ...
(1892–1950).''
Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
n stage, film, and television
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
.
Early life and career
Ingram was born near
Cairo, Illinois, on the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
; his father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat ''
Robert E. Lee''. Ingram graduated from the
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
medical school in 1919 and was the first
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
man to receive a
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
key from
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
. 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
''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released
as a novel in June ...
'' (1918), starring
Elmo Lincoln
Elmo Lincoln (born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt; February 6, 1889June 27, 1952) was an American stage and film actor whose career in motion pictures spanned the silent and sound eras. He performed in over 100 screen productions between 1913 and 1952 an ...
. 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
''The Green Pastures'' is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from ''Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. It had th ...
'' (1936), ''
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United St ...
'' (the 1939
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
version, opposite
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
), ''
The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940—perhaps his best-known film appearance—as the
genie
Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources)
– are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...
), ''
The Talk of the Town'' (1942), and ''
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
'' (1943).
From 1929, he also appeared on stage, making his debut on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. He appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, with his final role coming in ''
Kwamina
''Kwamina'' is a musical with the libretto by Robert Alan Aurthur and music and lyrics by Richard Adler.
Production
The musical opened in out of town tryouts in Toronto, where, as noted by Ken Mandelbaum "The reviews were promising",Mandelbaum, ...
'' 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 monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
(in ''The Green Pastures'') and the
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
(in ''Cabin in the Sky''). In 1966 he played Tee-Tot in the movie ''
Your Cheatin' Heart
"Your Cheatin' Heart" is a song written and recorded by country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1952. It is regarded as one of country's most important standards. Williams was inspired to write the song while driving with his fiancé ...
''.
Ingram was arrested for violating the
Mann Act
The White-Slave Traffic Act, also called the Mann Act, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, ; ''codified as amended at'' ). It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois.
In its original form the act mad ...
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, a 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
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 ...
, when he appeared on ''
The Brighter Day
''The Brighter Day'' is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954, to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC Radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954&nda ...
''. He had other minor work in television in the 1960s, appearing in an episode each of ''
I Spy
I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...
'' and ''
The Bill Cosby Show
''The Bill Cosby Show'' is an American sitcom television series, that aired for two seasons on NBC's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of Procter & Gamble. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Bill ...
'', both of which starred
Bill Cosby
William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
, who used his influence to land him the roles.
Death
Shortly after filming a guest spot on ''
The Bill Cosby Show
''The Bill Cosby Show'' is an American sitcom television series, that aired for two seasons on NBC's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of Procter & Gamble. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Bill ...
'', Ingram died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
at the age of 73.
He was interred in
Forrest Lawn Memorial Park in
Hollywood Hills, California
The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains.
The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...
.
Complete filmography
Partial television credits
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingram, Rex
1895 births
1969 deaths
Male actors from Illinois
People convicted of violating the Mann Act
African-American male actors
American male film actors
American male silent film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Feinberg School of Medicine alumni
People from Cairo, Illinois
20th-century American male actors
20th-century African-American people
Federal Theatre Project people