Rex Ingram
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]
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: October 20, 1895
Deathday: September 19, 1969
Popularity:
Known For
The Talk of the Town
1942-08-20
The Talk of the Town
Overview: Hilarity ensues when a falsely accused fugitive from justice hides at the house of his childhood friend, which she has recently rented to a high-principled law teacher.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-08-20
Popularity:
The Ten Commandments
1923-11-23
The Ten Commandments
Overview: The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.
Genres: Drama Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-23
Popularity:
The Thief of Bagdad
1940-02-19
The Thief of Bagdad
Overview: When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.
Genres: Adventure Fantasy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-02-19
Popularity:
Moonrise
1948-10-01
Moonrise
Overview: Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s fiancée, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-10-01
Popularity:
Dark Waters
1944-11-21
Dark Waters
Overview: Leslie Calvin, the sole survivor of a submarine accident, goes to her relatives in order to recover emotionally. Unfortunately, she encounters various scam artists led by Mr. Sydney who intend to kill her and steal the family assets. Dr. George Grover helps Leslie to defeat Sydney.
Genres: Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-11-21
Popularity:
God's Little Acre
1958-09-23
God's Little Acre
Overview: In the 1950s, a poor Georgia cotton farmer and his sons search for the gold presumably buried on the farm by their grandfather but problems related to poverty, marital infidelity, unemployment and booze threaten to destroy their family.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-09-23
Popularity:
Emperor Jones
1933-09-29
Emperor Jones
Overview: Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-29
Popularity:
Journey to Shiloh
1968-05-10
Journey to Shiloh
Overview: At the beginning of the Civil War, seven friends embark on a cross-country journey in order to join the Confederate army.
Genres: Drama War Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-05-10
Popularity:
Sahara
1943-09-22
Sahara
Overview: In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an isolated well with a limited supply of water from a German Afrika Korps battalion during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.
Genres: Adventure War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-09-22
Popularity:
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
1961-05-24
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Overview: A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-24
Popularity:
The Ten Commandments
1956-10-05
The Ten Commandments
Overview: Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-10-05
Popularity:
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
1955-02-16
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
Overview: Hunters trespass into Sukulu country, where animals are sacred, posing as photographers.
Genres: Romance Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-02-16
Popularity:
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964-11-04
Your Cheatin' Heart
Overview: The story of the country and western singer Hank Williams.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-11-04
Popularity:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1939-02-10
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Overview: Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.
Genres: Adventure Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-02-10
Popularity:
The Green Pastures
1936-08-01
The Green Pastures
Overview: God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black Americans.
Genres: Drama Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-08-01
Popularity:
Tarzan of the Apes
1918-01-27
Tarzan of the Apes
Overview: A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-01-27
Popularity:
Harlem After Midnight
1934-01-01
Harlem After Midnight
Overview: Gangsters in Harlem make plans to commit a kidnapping.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-01-01
Popularity:
Cabin in the Sky
1943-03-24
Cabin in the Sky
Overview: When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia, while an angel known as the General and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr., fight for his soul.
Genres: Music Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-03-24
Popularity:
Hurry Sundown
1967-02-09
Hurry Sundown
Overview: Post-WWII, a corporation seeks Georgia farmland, but two owners—a white veteran and a black man—refuse to sell, forming an alliance against the greedy husband of the majority landowner.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-02-09
Popularity:
Watusi
1959-03-25
Watusi
Overview: Following WWI, fortune hunter Allen Quartermain's son Harry travels to Africa to search for King Solomon's mines. He dons a special medallion given by his father from the Watusi tribe, who guard the mines. Along the way, Harry and his friend Rick meet and take with them Erica, daughter of a missionary killed by a local tribe.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-03-25
Popularity:
Congo Crossing
1956-07-01
Congo Crossing
Overview: Congotanga, West Africa, has no extradition laws; the government is controlled by foreign gangsters, headed by Carl Rittner. The latest plane from Europe carries lovely Louise Whitman, fleeing a French murder charge, and Mannering, who pays resident hit man O'Connell to kill her. Through a chain of circumstances Louise, O'Connell, and heroic surveyor David Carr end up alone in the jungle on Carr's mission to determine the true border of Congotanga... in which Rittner is keenly interested.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-07-01
Popularity:
Anna Lucasta
1958-11-01
Anna Lucasta
Overview: The estranged family of a reformed prostitute calls her back home to get her married to an affluent acquaintance out of greed.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-11-01
Popularity:
The Gay Knighties
1941-08-22
The Gay Knighties
Overview: A Puppetoon by George Pal.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-22
Popularity:
Jasper's Paradise
1944-10-13
Jasper's Paradise
Overview: Jasper goes to heaven in this George Pal Puppetoon.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-10-13
Popularity:
Fired Wife
1943-09-04
Fired Wife
Overview: A Broadway producer's Girl Friday must make sure that her recent marriage is kept secret. If it gets out, she will lose her job. Unfortunately, her new hubby is tired of hiding the truth and creates all kinds of problems when he decides to spill the beans.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-09-04
Popularity:
The King of Kings
1927-04-19
The King of Kings
Overview: The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-04-19
Popularity:
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
1973-01-01
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-01-01
Popularity:
The Four Feathers
1929-06-01
The Four Feathers
Overview: An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from his fiancee (Fay Wray) and friends.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-06-01
Popularity:
Let My People Live
1939-03-10
Let My People Live
Overview: Aimed at African Americans and shot at Tuskegee University, this film instructs viewers in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis by focusing on a pair of sympathetic siblings, George and Mary, whose lives are altered by the disease. Starring Rex Ingram as Dr. Gordon, the film suggests that organized religion is an important defensive location in this particular community, and warns of the dangers of the previous generation’s superstitions and its fear of medicine. The Health Department prominently featured the film at the 1939 World’s Fair. Directed by Edgar Ulmer.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-03-10
Popularity:
Desire in the Dust
1960-10-10
Desire in the Dust
Overview: Lonnie Wilson returns to small southern hometown after spending six years on the chain-gang for killing Colonel Ben Marquand's son in an automobile accident. He revives his love affair with Melinda Marquand........
Genres: Crime Romance Mystery Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-10-10
Popularity:
Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad
2008-05-27
Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad
Overview: Documentary about the technical achievements of the 1940 film classic The Thief of Bagdad.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Popularity:
Shoe Shine Jasper
1947-02-28
Shoe Shine Jasper
Overview: George Pal shines a shoes while fairy godmother visits him.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-02-28
Popularity:
Escort West
1959-01-23
Escort West
Overview: Seeking a new place to call home, former Confederate soldier Ben Lassiter (Victor Mature) and his daughter meet Beth (Elaine Stewart), whose fiancé is a Union soldier. Lassiter falls for Beth, and when Indians attack, they head to a cavalry camp where Lassiter must battle the Indians as well as Beth's fiancé.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-23
Popularity:
John Henry and the Inky-Poo
1946-09-06
John Henry and the Inky-Poo
Overview: In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), legendary American folklore figure John Henry (voice of Rex Ingram) goes to work for the C&O Railroad, which shortly thereafter buys an automatic steel-driving engine, The Inky-Poo. John Henry matches his strength against the engine, saying that any man can beat a machine because a man has a mind. Can he prevail? In 2015 this film, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2009.
Genres: Animation Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-09-06
Popularity:
A Thousand and One Nights
1945-07-20
A Thousand and One Nights
Overview: On the run after being found sweet-talking the Sultan's daughter, Aladdin comes upon a lamp which, when rubbed, summons up Babs the genie. He uses it to return as a visiting prince asking for the princess's hand. Unfortunately for him, the sultan's wicked twin brother has secretly usurped the throne, someone else is after the lamp for his own ends, and Babs has taken a shine to Aladdin herself and is bent on wrecking his endeavours.
Genres: Adventure Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-07-20
Popularity:
Elmer Gantry
1960-07-07
Elmer Gantry
Overview: A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based on Sinclair Lewis' novel of the same name.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-07-07
Popularity:
Adventure
1945-12-28
Adventure
Overview: A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.
Genres: Adventure Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-12-28
Popularity:
Hoola Boola
1941-06-27
Hoola Boola
Overview: Jim Dandy lands on a tropical island and falls in love with a beautiful maiden. Soon a tribe of cannibals kidnap him. A Puppetoon animated short film.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-06-27
Popularity: