Mantan Moreland
Acting • Born 1902-09-03 – Died 1973-09-28
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.
Filmography
112 credits
King of the Zombies
Movie • 1941
Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson
It Started with Eve
Movie • 1941
Railway Porter (uncredited)
Spider Baby
Movie • 1967
Messenger
Watermelon Man
Movie • 1970
Joe the Counterman
Footlight Serenade
Movie • 1942
Amos
The Spider
Movie • 1945
Harry
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
Movie • 1944
Birmingham Brown
Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
Movie • 1944
Birmingham Brown, Taxi Driver
Black Magic
Movie • 1944
Birmingham Brown
The Shanghai Cobra
Movie • 1945
Birmingham Brown
The Scarlet Clue
Movie • 1945
Birmingham Brown, Chauffeur
The Jade Mask
Movie • 1945
Birmingham Brown
Shadows Over Chinatown
Movie • 1946
Birmingham Brown
Dark Alibi
Movie • 1946
Birmingham Brown
The Trap
Movie • 1946
Birmingham Brown
Sleepers West
Movie • 1941
Porter (uncredited)
Docks of New Orleans
Movie • 1948
Birmingham Brown
The Chinese Ring
Movie • 1947
Birmingham Brown
The Shanghai Chest
Movie • 1948
Birmingham Brown
The Feathered Serpent
Movie • 1948
Birmingham Brown
Eyes in the Night
Movie • 1942
Alistair
The Golden Eye
Movie • 1948
Birmingham Brown
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
Movie • 1942
Horatio B.Fitz Washington
Lucky Ghost
Movie • 1942
Washington
Tarzan's New York Adventure
Movie • 1942
Sam, the Nightclub Janitor (uncredited)
Up in the Air
Movie • 1940
Jeff Jefferson
Cabin in the Sky
Movie • 1943
First Idea Man
Birth of the Blues
Movie • 1941
Black Trumpet Player (uncredited)
She Wouldn't Say Yes
Movie • 1945
Porter (uncredited)
On the Spot
Movie • 1940
Jefferson White
Frontier Scout
Movie • 1938
Norris Family Butler
Phantom Killer
Movie • 1942
Nicodemus
Sign of the Wolf
Movie • 1941
Ben
Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher
Movie • 1943
Eustace Smith
Melody Parade
Movie • 1943
Skidmore
Swing Fever
Movie • 1943
Woody
Freckles Comes Home
Movie • 1942
Jeff the porter
The Gang's All Here
Movie • 1941
Jefferson 'Jeff' Smith
Revenge of the Zombies
Movie • 1943
Jefferson 'Jeff' Johnson
Mantan Messes Up
Movie • 1946
Mantan
You're Out of Luck
Movie • 1941
Jeff Jefferson
Four Jacks and a Jill
Movie • 1942
Cicero - Wash Room Attendant (uncredited)
Next Time I Marry
Movie • 1938
Tilby
Spirit of Youth
Movie • 1938
Creighton 'Crickie' Fitzgibbons
Two-Gun Man from Harlem
Movie • 1938
Bill Blake
Mr. Washington Goes to Town
Movie • 1942
Schenectady Washington
Irish Luck
Movie • 1939
Jefferson
Pin Up Girl
Movie • 1944
Train Station Porter (uncredited)
Sarong Girl
Movie • 1943
Maxwell
Let's Go Collegiate
Movie • 1941
Jeff
Riverboat Rhythm
Movie • 1946
Mantan
Andy Hardy's Double Life
Movie • 1942
Prentiss - The Benedict Butler (uncredited)
Dressed to Kill
Movie • 1941
Rusty
Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery
Movie • 1941
Roy
Captain Tugboat Annie
Movie • 1945
Pinto
Rockin' the Blues
Movie • 1956
Self
Enter Laughing
Movie • 1967
Subway Rider
Chip Off the Old Block
Movie • 1944
Porter
Harlem on the Prairie
Movie • 1937
Mistletoe
Up Jumped the Devil
Movie • 1941
Washington
Professor Creeps
Movie • 1942
Washington
Return of Mandy's Husband
Movie • 1947
Mantan
Girl Trouble
Movie • 1942
Flint's Chauffeur
Tell No Tales
Movie • 1939
Sport Black at the Wake (uncredited)
Law of the Jungle
Movie • 1942
Jefferson "Jeff" Jones
Riders of the Frontier
Movie • 1939
Chappie, the Cook
Moon Over Las Vegas
Movie • 1944
Porter
Chasing Trouble
Movie • 1940
Thomas H. Jefferson
Come On, Cowboy!
Movie • 1949
Mantan
Millionaire Playboy
Movie • 1940
Bellhop
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
Movie • 1940
Robbins
Viva Cisco Kid
Movie • 1940
Memphis - The Cook
Treat 'Em Rough
Movie • 1942
'Snake-Eyes'
Star Dust
Movie • 1940
Waiter on Train
The Green Pastures
Movie • 1936
Angel Removing Hat (uncredited)
Laughing at Danger
Movie • 1940
Jefferson
Drums of the Desert
Movie • 1940
Sergeant 'Blue' Williams
Four Shall Die
Movie • 1940
Beefus - Touissant's Chauffeur
He Hired the Boss
Movie • 1943
Bootblack
A-Haunting We Will Go
Movie • 1942
Porter (uncredited)
Mantan Runs for Mayor
Movie • 1946
The Dreamer
Movie • 1948
Ebony Parade
Movie
Mantan
She's Too Mean for Me
Movie • 1948
What a Guy
Movie • 1948
Girl in 313
Movie • 1940
Porter
Maryland
Movie • 1940
City of Chance
Movie • 1940
Anxious Man
Sky Dragon
Movie • 1949
Birmingham Brown
Gang Smashers
Movie • 1938
Gloomy
Cracked Nuts
Movie • 1941
Burgess
Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost
Movie • 1942
Lightnin'
Slightly Dangerous
Movie • 1943
Waiter at Swade's (uncredited)
Bowery to Broadway
Movie • 1944
Alabam
You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith
Movie • 1943
Porter
South of Dixie
Movie • 1944
The Porter
We've Never Been Licked
Movie • 1943
Willie
Hit the Ice
Movie • 1943
Porter with Snowshoes (uncredited)
That's the Spirit
Movie • 1933
Night Watchman
Tall, Tan and Terrific
Movie • 1946
Mantan Moreland
See Here, Private Hargrove
Movie • 1944
Train Porter (uncredited)
Swing Fever
Movie • 1943
Woody, Nick's Valet (uncredited)
The Patsy
Movie • 1964
Barber Shop Porter
The Young Nurses
Movie • 1973
Old Man
Marry the Boss's Daughter
Movie • 1941
Diner Cook
One Dark Night
Movie • 1939
Samson Brown
While Thousands Cheer
Movie • 1940
Nash
The Comic
Movie • 1969
Passerby at Billy's Funeral (unbilled)
The Bill Cosby Show
TV • 1969
Uncle Dewey
Julia
TV • 1968
Harry James
Adam-12
TV • 1968
Philip Richards
Love, American Style
TV • 1969
Stranger