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Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is not known by many people. This isn’t because he didn’t cause change or because he was some anoymous person hide between the cracks of life. It’s because he was better known as Stepin Fetchit. This character garnered much attention back in the ‘30s. Black people didn’t respect the character as much as Caucasan viewers loved him. And when I say “loved him” that’s exactly what the hell I mean. This man was the very first African American actor to become a millionaire!
Although Mr. Lincoln Perry was the first black actor to become a millionaire, he declared bankruptcy in 1947. While looking up more info on Stepin Fetchit I stumbled across Wikipidia dot com, and I read that Willie Best (Sleep 'n Eat) and Mantan Moreland, the scared, wide-eyed manservant of Charlie Chan were close imitators of Mr. Perry.
Say what you want about him, he appeared in 54 films between 1925 and 1976 and the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP awarded him a Special NAACP Image Award. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category "Motion pictures". Two years after that, Perry was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Unfortunatly, he had a stroke in 1976 and it ended his career. And though he died pennyless on November 19, 1985, he’ll be remembered for what he helped Haley Barry and Denzel Washington accomplish….
Below is a link to a video of one of the many movies he cameoed in. Until the next post, much love, peace, and medicated hair grease.