Rex Ingram
Date of birth: 1895-10-20
Place of birth: Cairo, Illinois, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as:
Biography
Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an American stage, film, and television actor. 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 there. 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), 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. 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 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 work in television in the 1950s and 1960s. Rex Ingram died of a heart attack at the age of 73. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
Movie Credits
The Talk of the Town
1942-08-20
Hilarity ensues when a falsely accused fugitive from justice hides at the house of his childhood fri
The Ten Commandments
1923-11-23
The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receip
The Thief of Bagdad
1940-02-19
When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with th
Moonrise
1948-10-01
Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one
Dark Waters
1944-11-21
Leslie Calvin, the sole survivor of a submarine accident, goes to her relatives in order to recover
God's Little Acre
1958-09-23
In the 1950s, a poor Georgia cotton farmer and his sons search for the gold presumably buried on the
Emperor Jones
1933-09-29
Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff an
Journey to Shiloh
1968-05-10
At the beginning of the Civil War, seven friends embark on a cross-country journey in order to join
Sahara
1943-09-22
In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an is
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
1961-05-24
A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and h
The Ten Commandments
1956-10-05
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
1955-02-16
Hunters trespass into Sukulu country, where animals are sacred, posing as photographers.
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964-11-04
The story of the country and western singer Hank Williams.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939-02-10
Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his
The Green Pastures
1936-08-01
God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described
Harlem After Midnight
1934-01-01
Gangsters in Harlem make plans to commit a kidnapping.
Tarzan of the Apes
1918-01-27
A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many yea
Cabin in the Sky
1943-03-24
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where h
Hurry Sundown
1967-02-09
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tr
Watusi
1959-03-25
Following WWI, fortune hunter Allen Quartermain's son Harry travels to Africa to search for King Sol
Congo Crossing
1956-07-01
Congotanga, West Africa, has no extradition laws; the government is controlled by foreign gangsters,
Anna Lucasta
1958-11-01
The estranged family of a reformed prostitute calls her back home to get her married to an affluent
The Gay Knighties
1941-08-22
Jim Dandy is having a dream about a fierce ogre that is terrifying a mythical kingdom of your. Sir A
Jasper's Paradise
1944-10-13
Jasper goes to heaven in this George Pal Puppetoon.
Fired Wife
1943-09-04
A Broadway producer's Girl Friday must make sure that her recent marriage is kept secret. If it gets
The King of Kings
1927-04-19
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, w
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
1973-01-01
The Four Feathers
1929-06-01
An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from h
Let My People Live
1939-03-10
Aimed at African Americans and shot at Tuskegee University, this film instructs viewers in the preve
Desire in the Dust
1960-10-10
Lonnie Wilson returns to small southern hometown after spending six years on the chain-gang for kill
Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad
2008-05-27
Documentary about the technical achievements of the 1940 film classic The Thief of Bagdad.
Shoe Shine Jasper
1947-02-28
George Pal shines a shoes while fairy godmother visits him.
Escort West
1959-01-23
Seeking a new place to call home, former Confederate soldier Ben Lassiter (Victor Mature) and his da
John Henry and the Inky-Poo
1946-09-06
In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), legen
A Thousand and One Nights
1945-07-20
On the run after being found sweet-talking the Sultan's daughter, Aladdin comes upon a lamp which, w
Elmer Gantry
1960-07-07
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside e
Adventure
1945-12-28
A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.
Hoola Boola
1941-06-27
Jim Dandy lands on a tropical island and falls in love with a beautiful maiden. A Puppetoon animated