January 8, 1900, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA - July 4, 1952, Moscow, USSR
Born in the USA, he was the first black performer of the role of "Othello" in a "white" troupe (New York). In the early 1930s, he came to the USSR with his white American wife, a pianist. The Soviet Union became his second homeland.
In 1938 he graduated from the State Institute of Theatre Arts (directing department), worked in the theater with V.E. Meyerhold, acted in many Soviet films. He was a "regular" black man of Soviet cinema, when there was practically no communication with foreign countries, and a black man on the street gathered a crowd of onlookers.
