Name
Mantan Moreland
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1902-09-03
Deathday
1973-09-28 (71 years old)
Place of Birth
Monroe, Louisiana, USA
Biography
Born just after the turn of the century in Louisiana, Mantan began running away from home at age 12 to join circuses and medicine shows, only to be brought back time and again. During these times he sharpened his comic skills and developed routines and acts that eventually became popular on the vaudeville stage, or what was then called the "chitlin' circuit." A solo performer by nature, he often teamed up with other famous comics (such as Ben Carter) to keep working, and became a deft performer of "indefinite talk" routines, where two quicksilver comics continually topped each other in mid-sentence, as if reading each other's mind (i.e., "Say, did you see...?" "Saw him just yesterday...didn't look so good"). Mantan's focus gradually shifted his trade toward film, where he initially appeared in servile bits (shoeshine men, porters, waiters). However, his talent for making people laugh couldn't be overlooked and he soon earned featured status in Harlem-styled western parodies and grade "A" comedy films playing the superstitious, ever-terrified manservant running from any kind of impending doom.
Moreland's peak in movies came with his recurring role as Birmingham, the skittish chauffeur, in the "Charlie Chan" series, where he was forever forewarning his boss to stay away from an obviously dangerous case or situation. Though haunted mansions were an ideal place for setting off his stereotyped character, Mantan would be haunted in a different way by this Hollywood success in years to follow. By the 1950s, racial attitudes began to change and, with the rise of the civil rights movement, what was once considered hilarious was now interpreted as demeaning and offensive to both blacks and whites. Mantan and others, such as Stepin Fetchit, were ostracized and ridiculed by Hollywood for their past negative portrayals. It took decades for audiences to forgive and newer generations to forget the Depression-era comedy of Mantan Moreland in order for the actor to come back.
In the late 1960s he managed a modest resurgence on TV and in commercials and occasional films, allowing him to work again with such comic heavyweights as Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge and director Carl Reiner. It was all too brief, however, for Mantan, long suffering from ill health, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973, just as he was settling in to his renewed popularity. Today, audiences tend to be kinder and more understanding of Moreland, remembering him as a highly talented comic who, in the only way he knew, broke major barriers and opened the doors for others black actors to follow.
Known For
6.111
Blind detective Duncan Maclain gets mixed up with enemy agents and murder when he tries to...
6.833
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye famil...
6.032
After Flash Fulton and Weejie McCoy take pictures of a bank robbery, they're lured to the ...
6.5
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgator...
6.3
A racist insurance agent lives in a typical suburban neighborhood, but his bigoted world o...
5.2
During World War II, a small plane somewhere over the Caribbean runs low on fuel and is bl...
6.289
Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to a...
- 1941 King of the Zombies as Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson
- 1941 It Started with Eve as Railway Porter (uncredited)
- 1967 Spider Baby as Messenger
- 1970 Watermelon Man as Joe the Counterman
- 1942 Footlight Serenade as Amos
- 1945 The Spider as Harry
- 1944 Charlie Chan in the Secret Service as Birmingham Brown
- 1944 Black Magic as Birmingham Brown
- 1945 The Shanghai Cobra as Birmingham Brown
- 1944 Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat as Birmingham Brown, Taxi Driver
- 1945 The Jade Mask as Birmingham Brown
- 1945 The Scarlet Clue as Birmingham Brown, Chauffeur
- 1946 Shadows Over Chinatown as Birmingham Brown
- 1946 The Trap as Birmingham Brown
- 1946 Dark Alibi as Birmingham Brown
- 1941 Sleepers West as Porter (uncredited)
- 1948 Docks of New Orleans as Birmingham Brown
- 1947 The Chinese Ring as Birmingham Brown
- 1948 The Feathered Serpent as Birmingham Brown
- 1948 The Shanghai Chest as Birmingham Brown
- 1942 Eyes in the Night as Alistair
- 1948 The Golden Eye as Birmingham Brown
- 1942 The Strange Case of Doctor Rx as Horatio B.Fitz Washington
- 1942 Lucky Ghost as Washington
- 1942 Tarzan's New York Adventure as Sam, the Nightclub Janitor (uncredited)
- 1940 Up in the Air as Jeff Jefferson
- 1943 Cabin in the Sky as First Idea Man
- 1941 Birth of the Blues as Black Trumpet Player (uncredited)
- 1945 She Wouldn't Say Yes as Porter (uncredited)
- 1940 On the Spot as Jefferson White
- 1938 Frontier Scout as Norris Family Butler
- 1942 Phantom Killer as Nicodemus
- 1941 Sign of the Wolf as Ben
- 1943 Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher as Eustace Smith
- 1943 Melody Parade as Skidmore
- 1943 Swing Fever as Woody
- 1942 Freckles Comes Home as Jeff the porter
- 1941 The Gang's All Here as Jefferson 'Jeff' Smith
- 1943 Revenge of the Zombies as Jefferson 'Jeff' Johnson
- 1946 Mantan Messes Up as Mantan
- 1941 You're Out of Luck as Jeff Jefferson
- 1942 Four Jacks and a Jill as Cicero - Wash Room Attendant (uncredited)
- 1938 Next Time I Marry as Tilby
- 1938 Spirit of Youth as Creighton 'Crickie' Fitzgibbons
- 1938 Two-Gun Man from Harlem as Bill Blake
- 1942 Mr. Washington Goes to Town as Schenectady Washington
- 1939 Irish Luck as Jefferson
- 1944 Pin Up Girl as Train Station Porter (uncredited)
- 1943 Sarong Girl as Maxwell
- 1941 Let's Go Collegiate as Jeff
- 1946 Riverboat Rhythm as Mantan
- 1942 Andy Hardy's Double Life as Prentiss - The Benedict Butler (uncredited)
- 1941 Dressed to Kill as Rusty
- 1941 Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery as Roy
- 1945 Captain Tugboat Annie as Pinto
- 1956 Rockin' the Blues as Self
- 1967 Enter Laughing as Subway Rider
- 1944 Chip Off the Old Block as Porter
- 1937 Harlem on the Prairie as Mistletoe
- 1947 Return of Mandy's Husband as Mantan
- 1942 Professor Creeps as Washington
- 1941 Up Jumped the Devil as Washington
- 1942 Girl Trouble as Flint's Chauffeur
- 1939 Tell No Tales as Sport Black at the Wake (uncredited)
- 1942 Law of the Jungle as Jefferson "Jeff" Jones
- 1939 Riders of the Frontier as Chappie, the Cook
- 1944 Moon Over Las Vegas as Porter
- 1940 Chasing Trouble as Thomas H. Jefferson
- 1949 Come On, Cowboy! as Mantan
- 1940 Millionaire Playboy as Bellhop
- 1940 Viva Cisco Kid as Memphis - The Cook
- 1940 The Man Who Wouldn't Talk as Robbins
- 1942 Treat 'Em Rough as 'Snake-Eyes'
- 1940 Star Dust as Waiter on Train
- 1936 The Green Pastures as Angel Removing Hat (uncredited)
- 1940 Laughing at Danger as Jefferson
- 1940 Drums of the Desert as Sergeant 'Blue' Williams
- 1940 Four Shall Die as Beefus - Touissant's Chauffeur
- 1943 He Hired the Boss as Bootblack
- 1942 A-Haunting We Will Go as Porter (uncredited)
- 1946 Mantan Runs for Mayor
- 1948 The Dreamer
- Soon Ebony Parade as Mantan
- 1948 She's Too Mean for Me
- 1948 What a Guy
- 1940 Girl in 313 as Porter
- 1940 Maryland
- 1940 City of Chance as Anxious Man
- 1949 Sky Dragon as Birmingham Brown
- 1938 Gang Smashers as Gloomy
- 1941 Cracked Nuts as Burgess
- 1942 Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost as Lightnin'
- 1943 Slightly Dangerous as Waiter at Swade's (uncredited)
- 1944 Bowery to Broadway as Alabam
- 1943 You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith as Porter
- 1944 South of Dixie as The Porter
- 1943 We've Never Been Licked as Willie
- 1943 Hit the Ice as Porter with Snowshoes (uncredited)
- 1933 That's the Spirit as Night Watchman
- 1946 Tall, Tan and Terrific as Mantan Moreland
- 1944 See Here, Private Hargrove as Train Porter (uncredited)
- 1943 Swing Fever as Woody, Nick's Valet (uncredited)
- 1964 The Patsy as Barber Shop Porter
- 1973 The Young Nurses as Old Man
- 1941 Marry the Boss's Daughter as Diner Cook
- 1940 While Thousands Cheer as Nash
- 1939 One Dark Night as Samson Brown
- 1969 The Comic as Passerby at Billy's Funeral (unbilled)
- 1944 This Is the Life as Porter (uncredited)
- 1942 A-Haunting We Will Go
- 1969 The Bill Cosby Show ( 1 episode ) as Uncle Dewey
- 1968 Julia ( 1 episode ) as Harry James
- 1968 Adam-12 ( 1 episode ) as Philip Richards
- 1969 Love, American Style ( 1 episode ) as Stranger
