Stepin Fetchit

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Stepin Fetchit (* the 30th May 1902 in Key West , Florida as Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry ; † 19th November 1985 in Woodland Hills , California ) was an American comedian , actor and singer . The African American achieved fame in the 1930s with the portrayal of characters, some of whom were racially recorded, which is why he is considered a controversial figure in American film history.

life and career

Stepin Fetchit was born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in Florida in 1902. His father was a cigarette maker from Jamaica , his mother a clothes maker from Nassau . Both immigrated to America in the 1890s and married there. At first his mother wanted him to be a dentist, but when he was twelve he ran away and joined a circus. In the following years Perry appeared as a singer and dancer, mostly in vaudevilles or circuses. He took his stage name Stepin Fetchit in the 1920s, it probably came from an abbreviation of the phrase "step and fetch it". He made his film debut in 1925 with a small role in The Mysterious Stranger . He achieved his breakthrough in 1927 with a supporting role in the silent film drama In Old Kentucky (1927). This was followed by the lead role in Hearts in Dixie (1929), one of the first films with a mainly African-American cast. Also in 1929 he played the role of Joe in the first film adaptation of the musical Show Boat .

From the late 1920s, Fetchit was able to make a name for himself in the sound film as a performer of Afro-American comic reliefs . His characters were adorable, but they were also characterized by great laziness, frequent fright and submissiveness, and not infrequently also simple-mindedness. As an example, one can see Fetchit's four appearances at the side of comedian star Will Rogers : Although both were private friends, he was regularly humiliated and abused by Rogers on the screen. In David Harum (1934), Rogers even sold fetchit with a horse in a weird scene. Other African American actors such as Willie Best and Mantan Moreland imitated Fetchit's screen character in other films. Fetchit is therefore often accused today of having reinforced the clichés about African-Americans with his representations. The actor - who was considered well-educated himself - resisted this criticism and when a television documentary painted a negative image of him in 1968, he sued the producers for millions. Fetchit defended himself by pointing out that he would have been the first African American Hollywood star and thus opened doors for later actors.

“Fetchit takes the stereotype of the lazy black to extremes with his own bravura. He always gives the slave a black Schwejk without guilt, at most with some cunning. As such, he plays his game with the Lord. His biographer Mel Watkins calls it "putting on old massa" - acting as clumsily and stupidly as possible in order to reduce labor and exploitation to a minimum. "

- Stefan Ripplinger

In fact, he was the most popular African American film star of the 1930s and is said to have made a million dollars from his performances. However, in the late 1940s, Fetchit had to file for bankruptcy after wasting the money (he had a dozen servants at one point and even more cars). Fetchit's other films included appearances in the Little Rascals and the Charlie Chan film Charlie Chan in Egypt (1936) with Warner Oland . Well-known directors such as John Ford in Judge Priest (1934) hired Fetchit for important supporting roles. In Hal Roach's comedy Zenobia, the fairground elephant , he played in 1939 alongside comedians Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon . At the beginning of the 1940s, he made fewer films, also because his screen character was now viewed more critically in public and producers were afraid to cast him. He only returned to the screen for irregular film and television appearances, for example alongside James Stewart in the western Mutiny on the Snake River or in Whom the Sun Is Shining by John Ford. He played his last role in 1976.

Stepin Fetchit was married three times, to his last wife, Bernice, until her death in 1984. He had two sons, with his younger son killing three people in a shooting spree in 1969 and then himself. In the 1970s, Fetchit, who was also friends with Muhammad Ali , was honored for his pioneering work with a NAACP Image Award and an introduction to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame . He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Stepin Fetchit died in 1985 at the age of 83 of heart failure combined with pneumonia.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lamparski, Richard (1982). Whatever Became Of ...? Eighth Series. New York: Crown Publishers. Pp. 106-7. ISBN 0-517-54855-0 .
  2. ↑ Stepin Fetchit at the Jim Crow Museum
  3. ↑ Stepin Fetchit at the Jim Crow Museum
  4. ↑ a b review by Stefan Ripplinger at Jungle-World
  5. ^ Report on the rampage
  6. ↑ Stepin Fetchit at Allmovie
personal data
SURNAME Fetchit, Stepin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Perry, Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comedian, actor and singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Key West , Florida
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1985
Place of death Woodland Hills , California