Spencer Williams

Spencer Williams

Born: July 14, 1893
Died: December 13, 1969
in Vidalia, Louisiana, USA
Spencer Williams was an African American actor and filmmaker. He was best known for playing Andy in the Amos 'n Andy television show and for directing the 1941 race film The Blood of Jesus. Williams was a pioneer African-American film producer and director.

Movies for Spencer Williams...

Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy
Title: Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1983
Type: Movie
The history of the television version of "Amos and Andy" and the public outcry to cancel it.
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Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
Title: Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 19, 1975
Type: Movie
Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
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Title: Bourbon Street Beat
Released: October 5, 1959
Type: TV
"Bourbon Street Beat" is a private detective series produced by Warner Brothers Television which aired on the ABC network from October 5, 1959, to July 4, 1960. It featured Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which they worked. The show is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and revolves around the lives of Rex Randolph (Long) and Cal Calhoun (Duggan), who run a detective agency called Randolph and Calhoun — Special Services. The agency is based in the Absinthe House, a French Quarter nightclub on Bourbon Street.
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Title: Amos 'n' Andy
Character: Andrew H. "Andy" Brown
Released: June 28, 1951
Type: TV
A sitcom set in Manhattan's historic black community of Harlem.
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Rhapsody of Negro Life
Title: Rhapsody of Negro Life
Character: Spencer Jordan
Released: January 2, 1949
Type: Movie
Film by Spencer Williams.
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Juke Joint
Title: Juke Joint
Character: Bad News Johnson / Vanderbilt Whitney
Released: January 1, 1947
Type: Movie
Bad News Johnson, a con artist from Memphis, Tennessee, arrives in Dallas, Texas, accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing Johnson is an acting teacher from Hollywood. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew.
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Beale Street Mama
Title: Beale Street Mama
Character: Bad News Johnson
Released: January 1, 1946
Type: Movie
The film is set in Memphis, Tennessee and focuses on a street sweeper who comes upon a large parcel of money. He uses the newly acquired wealth to go on a spending spree, with the hope of getting back at an old girlfriend who dumped him for another man. However, complications arise when it is discovered the money is counterfeit.
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Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.
Title: Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.
Character: Old Hager
Released: January 1, 1946
Type: Movie
A Harlem nightclub entertainer arrives on the Caribbean island of "Rinidad" to perform as the headliner in a revue at the Paradise Hotel. She quickly attracts the attention of several men.
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The Girl in Room 20
Title: The Girl in Room 20
Character: Joe Phillips
Released: January 1, 1946
Type: Movie
Daisy Mae Walker is an aspiring singer from a small town in Texas, who comes to New York City to pursue a show business career, but falls prey to a sleazy nightclub owner. Thanks to the intervention of a kindly taxi driver, Daisy Mae is able to achieve her goals.
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The Negro Sailor
Title: The Negro Sailor
Character: Frank Roberts - columnist
Released: December 13, 1945
Type: Movie
US Navy produced short stars Joel Fluellen as a draftee from his civilian job at a black newspaper through boot camp and an assignment in the Pacific. Completed after the surrender of Japan, the film celebrates the teamwork, diversity, and the actions of several distinguished African American sailors.
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Of One Blood
Title: Of One Blood
Character: Wesley Hill
Released: January 1, 1944
Type: Movie
After losing their parents in a flood at a young age, two brothers grow up to become a police officer and a lawyer, working with a local newspaper owner to help rid the city of bootlegging gangsters.
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Go Down Death
Title: Go Down Death
Character: Big Jim Bottoms
Released: January 1, 1944
Type: Movie
The owner of a juke joint arranges to frame an innocent preacher with a scandalous photograph, but his scheme backfires when his own adoptive mother interferes.
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Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus
Title: Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus
Released: December 31, 1942
Type: Movie
An uncle discusses the life of Martin de Porres with his niece. de Porres was a late sixteenth-century Peruvian who was elevated to sainthood in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
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The Blood of Jesus
Title: The Blood of Jesus
Character: Razz Jackson
Released: April 26, 1941
Type: Movie
Razz accidentally shoots his wife Martha when his hunting rifle drops on the floor and discharges. The church congregation gathers at Martha’s bedside to pray for her recovery, and during this period an angel arrives to take Martha’s spirit from her body, but she is tempted by the slick Judas Green, who is an agent for Satan.
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Son of Ingagi
Title: Son of Ingagi
Character: Detective Nelson
Released: December 1, 1940
Type: Movie
A newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl's father.
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Bad Boy
Title: Bad Boy
Character: Terry
Released: July 10, 1939
Type: Movie
Johnny Fraser leaves his mother in their small home town and sets out for the big city. He obtains a job with a large firm of architects. Steve Carson, a fellow employee, is constantly flaunting the money he has won at the race track. Johnny also bets the races, but loses heavily and takes some of the firm's money to cover his losses.
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Harlem Rides the Range
Title: Harlem Rides the Range
Character: Watson
Released: February 1, 1939
Type: Movie
A wandering cowboy and his sidekick try to resolve a murder.
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The Bronze Buckaroo
Title: The Bronze Buckaroo
Character: Pete
Released: January 1, 1939
Type: Movie
Bob Blake and his sidekick and four singing cowboys arrive at the Jackson ranch where Bob learns from Betty Jackson that her brother, Joe, is missing. Bob investigates and learns that there is gold on the Jackson ranch, and the neighboring rancher has kidnapped Joe in order to get his land.
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Two-Gun Man from Harlem
Title: Two-Gun Man from Harlem
Character: Butch Carter
Released: May 1, 1938
Type: Movie
A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He infiltrates the gang to catch the men who framed him.
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Harlem on the Prairie
Title: Harlem on the Prairie
Character: Doc Clayburn
Released: December 9, 1937
Type: Movie
A cowboy helps a pretty young woman find lost gold. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Hot Biskits
Title: Hot Biskits
Released: December 31, 1931
Type: Movie
Virtually unseen for more than eighty years, Spencer Williams’s first film is a one-reel comedy short in which a rivalry between two men is played out in a high-stakes game of mini golf.
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The Framing of the Shrew
Title: The Framing of the Shrew
Character: Lawyer Evans Chew
Released: April 27, 1929
Type: Movie
Privacy Robson is a downtrodden husband who takes advice from his friend Florian Slappey. He eventually gets the upper hand after starting divorce proceedings, pretending to have a new girlfriend and refusing to eat anything she cooks him.
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Melancholy Dame
Title: Melancholy Dame
Character: Webster Dill
Released: February 2, 1929
Type: Movie
A nightclub owner's wife, jealous of his attentions to his star singer, schemes to get her fired.