Rex Ingram

Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an American stage, film, and television actor.

Early life Ingram was born near Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi River; his father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee. Ingram graduated from the Northwestern University medical school in 1919 and was the first African-American man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from Northwestern University.

Career Ingram went to Hollywood as a young man where he was literally discovered on a street corner by the casting director for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), starring Elmo Lincoln. He made his (uncredited) screen debut in that film and had many other small roles, usually as a generic black native, such as in the Tarzan films.

With the arrival of sound, his presence and his powerful voice became assets, and he went on to memorable roles in The Green Pastures (1936), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the 1939 MGM version, opposite Mickey Rooney), The Thief of Bagdad (1940—perhaps his best-known film appearance—as the genie), The Talk of the Town (1942), and Sahara (1943). After pleading guilty to the charge of transporting a teenage girl to New York for immoral purposes, he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. He served just ten months of his sentence, but the incident had a serious effect on his career for the next six years. In the interim, he invested in the Club Alabam, a nightclub in the Dunbar Hotel in South Central Los Angeles, with partners Joe Morris and Clarence Moore, reopening it as a jazz club.

In 1962, he became the first African-American actor to be hired for a contract role on a soap opera when he appeared on The Brighter Day. He had other minor work in television in the 1960s, appearing in one episode each of I Spy and The Bill Cosby Show, both of which starred Bill Cosby, who used his influence to land him the roles.

Death Two weeks after filming a guest spot on The Bill Cosby Show on September 5, 1969, Ingram died of a heart attack at the age of 73.

Complete filmography

Partial television credits Year Series Role Notes 1956 Climax! Petraca 1 episode 1958 Whirlybirds Joe 1 episode 1959 Black Saddle Alex Booth 1 episode 1961 The Rifleman Thaddeus 1 episode 1962 Sam Benedict Judge Larkin 1 episode 1965 I Spy Dr. Bingham 1 episode 1966 Branded Hannibal 1 episode 1967–1968 Daktari NatomaChief Makuba 2 episodes 1968 Cowboy in Africa Dr. Tom Merar 1 episode1969 Gunsmoke Juba 1 episode The Bill Cosby Show George Episode: A Christmas Ballad; posthumous release (final television appearance)