Alvin Childress

Alvin Childress

Born: September 14, 1907
Died: April 19, 1986
in Meridian, Mississippi, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American actor who is best known for playing the cabdriver Amos Jones in the 1950s television comedy series Amos 'n Andy. Alvin Childress was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He was educated at Rust College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. When he initially entered college, Childress intended to become a doctor, enrolling in typical pre-med courses. He had no thoughts of becoming involved in acting, but became involved in theater outside of classes.

Childress and Rex Ingram in the Federal Theatre Project production of Haiti (1938)

Childress moved to New York City and became an actor with Harlem's Lafayette Players, a troupe of stock players associated with the Lafayette Theatre. Soon, he was engaged as an actor in the Federal Theater Project, the American Negro Theater, and in all-black race film productions such as Keep Punching (1939). His greatest success on the stage was his performance as Noah in the popular comedy, Anna Lucasta, which ran for 957 performances. He also worked at Teachers College of Columbia University.[3][8] Childress also operated his own radio and record store in New York City. When he learned about casting for the Amos 'n Andy television series, Childress decided to audition for a role. He was hired a year before the show went on the air.

Movies for Alvin Childress...

Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
Title: Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
Character: Pinochle Player
Released: July 18, 1980
Type: Movie
Perennially stoned Cheech and Chong tear through the city of Los Angeles, causing trouble wherever they go. After Cheech loses his job, the two pot enthusiasts head to the welfare offices where Cheech's girlfriend, Donna, works. Instead of collecting unemployment, they find themselves thrown back on the streets, searching for a way to earn new income. But when Cheech's cousin, "Red" Mendoza, arrives, things get even crazier.
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The Main Event
Title: The Main Event
Character: Man In Gym
Released: June 22, 1979
Type: Movie
Hillary Kramer, a successful Perfume magnate, awakes one morning to find that her accountant has robbed her blind and left for South America. Going through all of her remaining assets she finds a boxer, purchased as a tax write-off. She decides to take Kid Natural, Eddie Scanlon, who is much more at home giving driving lessons, into the ring and use him as her key to riches. Eddie thinks this will only get him killed and resists.
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Title: Fish
Released: February 5, 1977
Type: TV
Fish is a spin-off television series of the sitcom Barney Miller. It starred Abe Vigoda as New York Police Department Detective Phil Fish and Florence Stanley as his wife Bernice.
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
Title: The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
Character: Horace
Released: July 16, 1976
Type: Movie
In the world of 1930s Negro League baseball, a spirited team of renegade players travels around the Midwest looking for that one big score. Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams, and James Earl Jones star as three barnstorming ballplayers who take on prejudice and their own League's unfair rules while stealing cars, food and home base - anything to prove that they're the best team around. It's a showdown of brains over booby traps and sportsmanship over racial segregation as Bingo Long's All-Stars swing their way into a winning season;.
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Darktown Strutters
Title: Darktown Strutters
Character: Bo
Released: October 7, 1975
Type: Movie
When a prominent abortion clinic owner goes missing along with a string of other black community leaders, her singing daughter and her fellow female biker gang members investigate.
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The Day of the Locust
Title: The Day of the Locust
Character: Butler
Released: May 7, 1975
Type: Movie
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
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Title: The Jeffersons
Released: January 18, 1975
Type: TV
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.
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Senior Power
Title: Senior Power
Character: Prowling Victim
Released: January 1, 1975
Type: Movie
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and North Hollywood Federal Savings and Loan team up to teach senior citizens some useful tips on avoiding purse snatcher, burglars, and armed robbers.
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Title: Good Times
Released: February 8, 1974
Type: TV
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which is itself a spin-off of All in the Family along with The Jeffersons. The series is set in Chicago. The first two seasons were taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. In the fall of 1975, the show moved to Metromedia Square, where Norman Lear's own production company was housed.
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Title: Sanford and Son
Released: January 14, 1972
Type: TV
The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.
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Old Man
Title: Old Man
Character: Farmer on Levee
Released: November 20, 1958
Type: Movie
In the South, convicts get a temporary release to help during a flood.
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Anna Lucasta
Title: Anna Lucasta
Character: Noah
Released: November 1, 1958
Type: Movie
Anna Lucasta has been walking the streets in San Diego since being thrown out of home, at 19, by her alcoholic father, Joe. She's estranged from her family, but when her father and brother-in-law see greedy potential in an arranged marriage to affluent Rudolph, Anna is called back home. Old wounds have hardly healed, though. Just as Anna starts to feel for Rudolph, Danny, an old friend, returns to make life difficult.
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Title: Perry Mason
Character: Janitor
Released: September 21, 1957
Type: TV
The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.
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Title: Amos 'n' Andy
Character: Amos Jones
Released: June 28, 1951
Type: TV
A sitcom set in Manhattan's historic black community of Harlem.
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Jasper's Boobytraps
Title: Jasper's Boobytraps
Released: January 1, 1945
Type: Movie
To get his comeuppance, Jasper sets a series boobytraps for Scarecrow.
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Jasper Goes Hunting
Title: Jasper Goes Hunting
Character: (uncredited)
Released: July 27, 1944
Type: Movie
Jasper is hunting in the jungle with his friend the Scarecrow. Along the way, they run into Bugs Bunny, making a rare cameo in a non-Warner Bros. production.
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Say Ah, Jasper
Title: Say Ah, Jasper
Character: Professor Scarecrow (uncredited) (voice)
Released: March 10, 1944
Type: Movie
Jasper goes to the dentist.
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Package for Jasper
Title: Package for Jasper
Character: Professor Scarecrow (voice)
Released: January 28, 1944
Type: Movie
Jasper receives a musical instrument in the mail and plays a few tunes with the scarecrow.
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Jasper's Music Lesson
Title: Jasper's Music Lesson
Character: Professor Scarecrow (voice)
Released: May 21, 1943
Type: Movie
Jasper and the scarecrow play some piano.
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Jasper and the Haunted House
Title: Jasper and the Haunted House
Character: Blackbird (uncredited)
Released: October 22, 1942
Type: Movie
Jasper and the Haunted House is another George Pal Puppetoon about a black boy and his troubles. This time, the scarecrow switches a sign that leads Jasper to a haunted house instead of a deacon's place where he brings a pie.