Mantan Moreland
Mantan Moreland | |
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File:MantanMorelandKoZ1941 USPD.JPG
1941 film King of the Zombies
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Born | Monroe, Louisiana, U.S. |
September 3, 1902
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Resting place | Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery |
Other names | Man Tan Moreland Manton Moreland Moreland |
Occupation | Actor, comedian |
Years active | 1933-1973 |
Spouse(s) | Hazel Moreland (1 child) |
Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s.[1][2]
Contents
Career
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, to Frank, an old-time Dixie band leader, and Marcella,[3] Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent, running away to join a minstrel show in 1910.[3] By the late 1920s, he had made his way through vaudeville, working with various shows and revues, performing on Broadway and touring Europe. Initially, Moreland appeared in low-budget "race movies" aimed at African-American audiences, but as his comedic talents came to be recognized, he received roles in larger productions.
Monogram Pictures signed Moreland to appear opposite Frankie Darro in the studio's popular action pictures. Moreland, with his bulging eyes and cackling laugh, quickly became a favorite supporting player in Hollywood movies. He is perhaps best known for his role as chauffeur Birmingham Brown in Monogram's Charlie Chan series. At the height of his career, Moreland received steady work from major film studios, as well as from independent producers who starred Moreland in low-budget, all-black-cast comedies.
Moreland also toured America in vaudeville, making personal appearances in the nation's movie theaters. His straight man was Ben Carter, and they developed an excellent rapport and impeccable timing. Their "incomplete sentence" routines can be seen in two Charlie Chan pictures, The Scarlet Clue and Dark Alibi.[4]
Moreland was offered fewer roles in the 1950s, when filmmakers began to reassess roles given to black actors.[citation needed][5] He was briefly considered as a possible addition to the Three Stooges when Shemp Howard died in 1955.[6] Moreland returned to the stage and appeared in two all-black variety films in 1955, with Nipsey Russell standing in for Ben Carter as his straight man.
Later career and death
Moreland's last featured role was in the 1968 darkly humorous horror film Spider Baby, which was patterned after Universal's thrillers of the 1940s. After suffering a stroke in the early 1960s, Moreland took on a few minor comedic roles, working with the likes of Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley and Carl Reiner.
Moreland died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973 in Hollywood.[1][7]
Partial filmography
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- That's the Spirit (1933)
- The Green Pastures (1936)
- Harlem on the Prairie (1937)
- Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938)
- Irish Luck (1939)
- One Dark Night (1939)
- Chasing Trouble (1940)
- On the Spot (1940)
- Up in the Air (1940)
- Four Shall Die (1940)
- Laughing at Danger (1940)
- You're Out of Luck (1941)
- Lady from Louisiana (1941)
- King of the Zombies (1941)
- Let's Go Collegiate (1941)
- Dressed to Kill (1941)
- The Gang's All Here (1941)
- Up Jumped the Devil (1941)
- Lucky Ghost (1942)
- Sleepers West (1942)
- Treat 'Em Rough (1942)
- Eyes in the Night (1942)
- Freckles Comes Home (1942)
- Footlight Serenade (1942)
- Girl Trouble (1942)
- Law of the Jungle (1942)
- Phantom Killer (1942)
- Professor Creeps (1942)
- Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)
- Cabin in the Sky (1943)
- Swing Fever (1943)
- It Comes Up Love (1943)
- We've Never Been Licked (1943)
- Revenge of the Zombies (1943)
- Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943)
- Pin-Up Girl (1944)
- Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
- Mystery of the River Boat (1944) serial
- Bowery to Broadway (1944)
- The Chinese Cat (1944)
- Chip Off the Old Block (1944)
- This Is the Life (1944)
- Black Magic (1944)
- The Spider (1945)
- Captain Tugboat Annie (1945)
- The Scarlet Clue (1945)
- The Jade Mask (1945)
- The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
- Mantan Messes Up (1946)
- The Trap (1946)
- Tall, Tan, and Terrific (1946)
- Dark Alibi (1946)
- Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
- Ebony Parade (1947)
- The Chinese Ring (1947)
- Shanghai Chest (1948)
- The Golden Eye (1948)
- Docks of New Orleans (1948)
- The Feathered Serpent (1948)
- Sky Dragon (1949)
- Rock 'n' Roll Revue (1955)
- Basin Street Revue (1956)
- The Patsy (1964)
- Spider Baby (1964)
- Alvarez Kelly (1966)
- Enter Laughing (1967)
- Watermelon Man (1970)
- The Biscuit Eater (1972)
- The Young Nurses (1973)
- Television
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- 1957 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode)
- 1969 Julia as Henry James ( 1 episode)
- 1970 The Bill Cosby Show as Uncle Dewey (1 episode)
- 1970 Adam-12 as Philip Richards ( 1 episode)
Recordings
- That Ain't My Finger (Laff)
- Elsie's Sportin' House (Laff)
- Tribute to the Man (Laff)
Cultural references
Robert B. Parker makes an allusion to Moreland in Hush Money, one of his long-running series of Spenser novels.[8][non-primary source needed]
Further reading
- Michael H. Price - Mantan the Funnyman (2007), a biography of Moreland
References
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- ↑ New York Times
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Disclosed by Moe Howard in a 1971 interview with film historian Michael H. Price, cited in Price's 2007 biography of Moreland, Mantan the Funnyman, from Midnight Marquee Press of Baltimore.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Parker, Robert B. Hush Money, page 12, New York: Putnam
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Mantan Moreland at the Internet Movie Database
- Mantan Moreland at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Mantan Moreland at AllMovie
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- Pages with broken file links
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- Commons category link from Wikidata
- 1902 births
- 1973 deaths
- Male actors from Louisiana
- African-American male actors
- American male film actors
- American male stage actors
- American male television actors
- Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
- People from Monroe, Louisiana
- Vaudeville performers
- 20th-century American male actors