British Stars In Blackface?

[Tigon Man]

Spike Milligan in various series including Q, Theres a Lot of It About, Curry & Chips etc.

[GRAEME]

name='Tigon Man' date='19 June 2010 - 05:33 PM' timestamp='1276965192' post='441817']

Spike Milligan in various series including Q, Theres a Lot of It About, Curry & Chips etc.

And on film - Watch Your Stern IIRC with Eric Sykes.

[Moor Larkin]

Danger Man is replete with Caucasians playing mid-Asians, Orientals or Arabians (John Bennett amongst them). However I don't recall any Caucasians playing those of Negroid racial heritage, perhaps becasue there were many West Indian actors available in England by then. There is more than one episode when John Drake is virtually the only Caucasian in the entire teleplay. It's interesting to note that the African-American press of the time was very appreciative of the *ethics* in Danger Man.



"while it is true that Bill Cosby dies star in I Spy, he is hobbled by the American reluctance to let a Negro male be a whole man on TV.............. On the other hand, Negroes are portrayed as people in Secret Agent stories............ Negro men make love in Secret Agent scripts and Negro women are objects of amorous attention...."



http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0...goohan&f=false



I think there was a theatrical element to the racial acting, where the actors saw it as a credit to their skillls to be able to portray someone of another race. I watched Alec Guinness in Lawrence of Arabia the other week and thought how nobody would accept him doing that nowadays for ethical reasons, whereas he would just have seen it as part of his art - like playing a Scotsman. Different times.

[Gerald Lovell]

Here's Leslie Phillips in blackface Doctor in Trouble (1970), but to be fair to Leslie, he's just climbing out of an engine funnel. I'll spare his further blushes by not showing him in his vest and Y-fronts.

[cornershop15]

name='Brief Encounter' date='17 June 2010 - 11:49 PM' timestamp='1276814984' post='441163']Harry Scott (Toby) in 'The Man in Grey'



(Not a well-known star, so nothing to compare this picture to - but it seems to be widely acknowledged that Harry has been 'blacked up'!)

name='Brief Encounter' date='18 June 2010 - 12:32 AM' timestamp='1276817567' post='441171']

Forgot that Stewart Granger did it as well in 'The Man in Grey'!

As Othello, opposite the unfortunately obscured Margaret Lockwood:



"Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?"



Plenty of Phyllis Calvert ATWs during this 'assignment', if interested.

I think my favourite (politically incorrect) examples are Ronnie Barker as Cleo Laine, which I haven't seen since it was first broadcast, Rory Bremner's surreal impersonations of Sir Trevor McDonald on News at Ten, and, most amazing of all, Arthur Lowe as an African dictator called Dr. Mumba - loosely based on Dr. Banda, presumably. I don't think I could stomach Curry and Chips (in both senses), mainly because of the fate of contemporary shows.

[Steve Crook]

Another one is Ralph Richardson in the Michael Powell propaganda short The Volunteer (1943).

Ralph is playing Othello on stage when we first meet him, and his dresser, backstage at the theatre.



Fred, the dresser (Pat McGrath), wants to "do his bit" and considers which of the armed forces can use him best. Although he appears talentless and quite clumsy the Fleet Air Arm take him on and train him.



Ralph Richardson was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm (in real life as well as in the film) and he meets up with Fred again on an aircraft carrier where Fred has not only done his job very well, he's been quite heroic and gets a medal.



So we finish up with Ralph Richardson, the big star, asking Fred for his autograph as he comes out of Buckingham Palace



Steve

[bruiser15]

Probably only one of these is Blackface, in it's minstrel sense, but interesting anyways







Spike in Rentadick







Michael Bentine in Rentadick







John Bluthal in The Great MacGonagall







Peter Jeffrey in The Horsemen



and whilst I cant locate it at this moment Peter Sellers makes a distinctly strange looking Japanese Officer in Soft Beds, Hard Battles.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='bruiser15' date='21 June 2010 - 10:11 PM' timestamp='1277154698' post='442606']



and whilst I cant locate it at this moment Peter Sellers makes a distinctly strange looking Japanese Officer in Soft Beds, Hard Battles.

And another dishonourable mention for Sir Alec in A Majority of One

[HUGHJAMPTON]

Arthur Lowe, In O, Lucky Man.

Ian Holm, played the mute native servant in Shout at the Devil

.



Frankie Howerd at the end of The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery.

[will.15]

name='Captain Waggett' date='22 June 2010 - 05:59 AM' timestamp='1277182750' post='442666']

And another dishonourable mention for Sir Alec in A Majority of One

My mother, not normally a theatergoer, saw the stage production on tour with its original star, Molly Goldberg, and thought it was hilarious. She wasn't happy with the filmed version with the very un-Jewish Rosalind Russell playing a Jewish widow who falls in love with a Japanese businessman. Cedric Hardwicke played the Guinness part on Broadway, but I don't know if he was in the touring production.



I screwed up. It starred Gertrude Berg who played Molly Goldberg for years on radio and television.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

name='bruiser15' date='21 June 2010 - 10:11 PM' timestamp='1277154698' post='442606']

Probably only one of these is Blackface, in it's minstrel sense, but interesting anyways











John Bluthal in The Great MacGonagall

Bluthal took the inspiration for his make-up from this character,

The White-Eyed Kaffir.

G.H. Chirgwin.

[Brief Encounter]

Thanks for the photos, corner...

[oxfam1uk]

In among this crowd are Hugh Laurie, David Brierley, Martin Clunes and many others. I thought this was the funniest of all the episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster" - it still makes me fall about !



I don't know why some people get so "offended" about this topic. ISTM they are making themselves look as daft as, well, a Black & White Minstrel ...

[Gerald Lovell]

In the earlier part of his career, Warren Mitchell played parts within many different ethnic groups. Here he is in the DANGER MAN episode "The Traitor" playing a "goodness gracious me" stereotype Indian, until John Drake reveals his credentials and then Warren changes into spy mode:

[Gerald Lovell]

Dead Man Walks



Although he'd be used to such titles from his considerable involvement with Hammer Films, here is Michael Ripper with Patrick McGoohan in a DANGER MAN episode of that name, playing an Indian agent whose cover is as a portrait photographer. Michael blacked up quite a few times in his career.

[Steve Crook]

You can add Leslie Phillips in Is Anybody There? (2008)



He's playing one of the residents at the old people's home and when they have a party they all dress up in fancy dress. Leslie's character decides to dress up in black-face







Steve

[Timmy_Lea]

Lenny Henry in True Identity?

[Gerald Lovell]

Frankie Howerd goes nubian in Up Pompeii (1971):

It appears Frankie was used to this sort of thing as he did a bizarre Welsh-voiced blackface before:


From The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966). In the same film:

Leon Thau supposedly playing a genuine Pakistani porter.

[Moor Larkin]

[Gerald Lovell]

A rather tasteless example from Vampira (1974) after the title character takes a bite out of her husband:



David Niven as Dracula (not Blacula!).