Rex Ingram

Rex Ingram

Birthday: 1895-10-20

Deathday: 1969-09-19

Place of birth: Cairo, Illinois, USA

Also known as:

imdb_id: nm0002270

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]

Played in movies:

Hoola Boola

Score: 8.0

The Ten Commandments

Score: 7.8

The Talk of the Town

Score: 7.3

Elmer Gantry

Score: 7.3

Sahara

Score: 7.2

The Thief of Bagdad

Score: 7.1

Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad

Score: 7.0

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Score: 6.6

Cabin in the Sky

Score: 6.5

The King of Kings

Score: 6.5

Hurry Sundown

Score: 6.5

The Ten Commandments

Score: 6.5

The Green Pastures

Score: 6.3

Your Cheatin' Heart

Score: 6.3

Moonrise

Score: 6.2

Adventure

Score: 6.2

Anna Lucasta

Score: 6.2

God's Little Acre

Score: 6.1

John Henry and the Inky-Poo

Score: 5.9

Dark Waters

Score: 5.8

A Thousand and One Nights

Score: 5.8

Watusi

Score: 5.7

Escort West

Score: 5.6

Emperor Jones

Score: 5.6

Journey to Shiloh

Score: 5.6

Tarzan of the Apes

Score: 5.4

Congo Crossing

Score: 5.2

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle

Score: 4.9

Fired Wife

Score: 4.8

The Four Feathers

Score: 4.4

Desire in the Dust

Score: 4.0

Shoe Shine Jasper

Score: 0.0

Let My People Live

Score: 0.0

The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli

Score: 0.0

Jasper's Paradise

Score: 0.0

The Gay Knighties

Score: 0.0

Harlem After Midnight

Score: 0.0

The Legend of Rudolph Valentino

Score: 0.0

Played in tv shows:

Kraft Television Theatre

Score: 7.5

Daktari

Score: 7.1

Daktari

Score: 7.1

The Rifleman

Score: 7.0

Gunsmoke

Score: 6.6

Branded

Score: 6.4

Sam Benedict

Score: 6.0

Black Saddle

Score: 6.0

The Bill Cosby Show

Score: 5.4

Cowboy in Africa

Score: 5.0

Cowboy in Africa

Score: 5.0

Climax!

Score: 3.3