Herb Jeffries

Herb Jeffries (born Umberto Alexander Valentino; September 24, 1913 – May 25, 2014) was an American actor of film and television and popular music and jazz singer-songwriter, known for his baritone voice.

He starred in several low-budget "race" Harlem on the Prairie (1937), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), Rhythm Rodeo (1938), The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). He also acted in several other films and television shows. During his acting career he was usually billed as Herbert Jeffrey

In the 1940s and 1950s Jeffries recorded for a number of labels, including RCA Victor, Exclusive, Coral, Decca, Bethlehem, Columbia, Mercury and Trend. His album Jamaica, recorded by RKO, is a concept album of self-composed calypso songs.

Early life and ethnicity Jeffries was born Umberto Alexander Valentino in Detroit to a white Irish mother who ran a rooming house. His father, whom he never knew, was of mixed French Canadian, Italian and Moorish roots. He also claimed that his paternal great-grandmother was an Ethiopian with the surname of Carey.

Firm evidence of Jeffries's race and age is hard to come by, but census documents from 1920 described him as mulatto and listed his father as a black man named Howard Jeffrey. Jeffries himself, late in life, said that Howard Jeffrey was his stepfather, and his biological father was Domenico Balentino, a Sicilian who died in World War I. Jeffries told the reporter for Jet:... I'm not passing, I never have, I never will. For all these years I've been wavering about the color question on the blanks. Suddenly I decided to fill in the blank the way I look and feel. Look at my blue eyes, look at my brown hair, look at my color. What color do you see?" he demanded to know. "My mother was 100 per cent white," Jeffries said, his blue eyes glinting in the New York sun. "My father is Portuguese, Spanish, American Indian, and Negro. How in the hell can I identify myself as one race or another?" in a mixed neighborhood without encountering severe racism as a child. In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he dropped out of high school to earn a living as a singer. He is shown in Black/White & All That Jazz explaining that he was inspired by New Orleans-born musician Louis Armstrong to say falsely, at a job interview in Chicago, that he was "a Creole from Louisiana" when he was of Irish and Sicilian heritage, among other ethnic backgrounds. By 1940, he was singing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and then recorded with him from 1940 to 1942. His 1940 recording of "Flamingo" with Ellington, released in 1941, sold more than 14 million copies in its day. His name had been Herbert Jeffrey, but the credits on the record mistakenly called him Jeffries, so he renamed himself to match the typo.

In 1945, Jeffries had a hit on the Billboard R&B chart with "Left A Good Deal In Mobile" (No. 2), on which he was accompanied by pianist Joe Liggins and his band Honeydrippers. Then, he moved to Europe and performed there for many years, including at nightclubs he owned. He was back in America by the 1950s, recording jazz records again, including 1957 collection of ballads, Say It Isn't So. The films include Harlem on the Prairie, The Bronze Buckaroo, Harlem Rides the Range and Two-Gun Man from Harlem.

Jeffries went on to star in another three musical westerns over the next two years. Hollywood Walk of Fame Palm Springs Walk of Stars, 1988 Western Performers Hall of Fame, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2004

Personal life His four marriages (including one to exotic dancer Tempest Storm) produced five children.

In 2007, while assembling material for the producers of a documentary film about him (A Colored Life), Jeffries found his birth certificate; this reminded him that he actually was born in 1913 and that he had misrepresented his age after he left home to look for a job.

In later years, he resided in Wichita, Kansas He was survived by his fifth wife, Savannah, three daughters, and two sons.

Filmography Harlem on the Prairie (1937) Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938) Harlem Rides the Range (1939) The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) Calypso Joe (1957) Chrome and Hot Leather (1971) Portrait of a Hitman (1979) Awake: The Life of Yogananda (2014)

Discography All the World is New (Collaboration with composer Charles H. Beals,1947) Magenta Moods (Exclusive, 1950) Just Jeffries (Mercury, 1951) Flamingo (Coral, 1952) The Singing Prophet (Olympic, 1954) Jamaica (RKO, 1956) Say It Isn't So (Bethlehem, 1957) Herb Jeffries (Harmony, 1957) Devil Is a Woman (Golden Tone, 1957) Passion (Brunswick, 1957) I Remember the Bing (Dobre, 1978) I've Got the World on a String (Discovery, 1989) The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again) (Warner Western 1995) The Duke and I (2012)