Bill Walker (actor)

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Bill Walker (born July 1, 1896 in Pendleton , Indiana as William Franklin Walker , † January 27, 1992 in Woodland Hills , California ) was an American actor .

life and career

The son of a released slave served as a soldier in World War I. He began his acting career in the theater, where he mostly had to stay afloat with the small roles that were common for African-Americans at the time. Between 1927 and 1936 he was seen in five productions on Broadway in New York.

Bill Walker made his film debut in 1946 with a small part in Robert Siodmak's film noir Avengers of the Underworld alongside Burt Lancaster . In the following 40 years he appeared in a total of over 180 film and television productions, with the African-American actor appearing mostly in supporting roles of small to medium size. Like many black actors of his time, he was often only seen in roles as a servant, but occasionally he was also given the opportunity to portray higher-ranking figures such as professors or pastors. One of his best-known roles is that of the Afro-American parish priest Reverend Sykes in the Harper Lee film adaptation Who Disrupts the Nightingale (1962) opposite Gregory Peck , for which Walker was not even mentioned in the opening credits. Peck, who received the Oscar for his role , credited Walker with a contribution to this award: After the lost trial, Walker played the sentence “Stand up, children, your father is passing” so convincingly and made his film children stand up would have secured Peck the Oscar.

Walker continued acting well into old age and last appeared in 1987 for two episodes of the television series Hunter in front of the camera. He was also publicly committed to the rights of African American people. He also argued with directors when he was of the opinion that they wanted to have played the African-American roles too stereotypically. He was also a long-time member of the Screen Actors Guild and, with the help of his good friend Ronald Reagan, got involved with producers to ensure that more roles were created for blacks.

In the early 1960s, he married the secretary Peggy Cartwright (1912-2001), who had acted as a child actress in the 1920s in some of the first Die kleine Trolche films. They entered into one of the first marriages between people of different skin colors in Hollywood. Bill Walker died in 1992 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital at the age of 95 of complications from cancer. He was buried in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bill Walker | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved September 29, 2018 .
  2. ^ The Broadway League: William Walker - Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB. Retrieved September 29, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c Burt A. Folkart: William Walker, 95; Actor Was Longtime Guild Board Member . In: Los Angeles Times . January 29, 1992, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed September 28, 2018]).
  4. ^ Peggy Cartwright . October 24, 2001, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed September 28, 2018]).
  5. ^ Bill Walker at Find A Grave, accessed September 28, 2018.
  6. ↑ William Walker at Find A Grave . Retrieved September 29, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Walker, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walker, William Franklin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Pendleton , Indiana , United States
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1992
Place of death Woodland Hills , California , United States