Orlando Martins

Orlando Martins (8 December 1899 – 25 September 1985) was a pioneering Yoruba Nigerian film and stage actor. In the late 1940s, he was one of Britain's most prominent and leading black actors, and in a poll conducted in 1947, he was listed among Britain's top 15 favourite actors.

Life He was born as Emmanuel Alhandu Martins at Okesuna Street, Lagos, Nigeria, to a civil servant father with roots in Brazil and a Nigerian mother. Martins was related to the Benjamin Epega family. In 1913, he was enrolled in Eko Boys High School but dropped out.

During World War I, he served as a stoker on the RMS Mauretania to avenge German cruelty to his family. Following the end of the war, he moved to London; on arrival in 1919, he had no source of income and had to look for ways to earn money. Around the same time, the Lyceum Theatre was looking for "supers" at the rate of three shillings per day. Martins joined the theatre and from there took on various theatre jobs to survive. In 1923, Sanger's Circus wanted to have someone to display pythons, Martins took the part, starting his performing career in the circus. He also worked as a wrestler (known as "Black Butcher Johnson").

Career In 1920, Martins was an extra acting with the Diaghilev ballet company, and was on the tour with the British company of Show Boat as a professional singer. He was an extra in silent films, having made his debut in If Youth But Knew (1926). with whom Martins had featured in the 1935 film Sanders of the River.

After the war, Martins had film roles in The Man from Morocco (1945) and in Men of Two Worlds (1946), alongside Robert Adams, becoming a sought-after character actor who was described by Peter Noble in 1948 as "a tall, powerful figure of a man with a deep bass voice, friendly, hospitable and with a grand sense of humour."

He appears in the 1949 film The Hasty Heart (starring Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal), playing the African soldier Blossom, which role Martins also undertook in the stage production. In his essay When The Bullfrog Jumps In The Sun - Why Things Fall Apart is still a very relevant Black film till this day, Lagos-based contemporary artist Mallam Mudi Yahaya describes the complex background of the production.

Death and legacy Martins died in 1985 at the age of 85 in Lagos, where he was buried at Ikoyi Cemetery.

Bristol-based playwright Ros Martin has been researching and developing material in connection with Martins, her great-uncle.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1935 Sanders of the River Klova Uncredited 1937 The Green Cockatoo Uncredited 1945 The Man from Morocco Jeremiah 1946 Men of Two Worlds Magole1946Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco 1947 The End of the River Harrigan 1948 Good-Time Girl Kolly 1949 The Hasty Heart Blossom 1951 Where No Vultures Fly M'Kwongwi 1953 The Heart of the Matter Rev. Clay Uncredited 1954 West of Zanzibar M'Kwongwi 1955 Simba Headman 1956 Safari Jerusalem 1957 Abandon Ship Sam Holly Tarzan and the Lost Safari Chief Ogonooro 1958 The Naked Earth Tribesman, pall bearer 1959 Sapphire Barman The Nun's Story Kalulu 1960 Killers of Kilimanjaro Chief 1963 Sammy Going South Abu Lubaba Call Me Bwana Chief 1965 Mister Moses Chief 1970 Kongi's Harvest Dr. Gbenga 1971 Things Fall Apart Obierika (final film role)