Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit

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Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit, 1902-1985.

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Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by his stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black actor to have a successful film career. His highest profile was during the 1930s in films and on stage, when his persona of Stepin Fetchit was billed as the "Laziest Man in the World".

Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, becoming the first black actor to earn $1 million. He was also the first black actor to receive featured screen credit in a film.

Perry's film career slowed after 1939 and nearly stopped altogether after 1953. Around that time, Black Americans began to see his Stepin Fetchit persona as an embarrassing and harmful anachronism, echoing negative stereotypes. However, writer Mel Watkins has since argued the Stepin Fetchit character is better described as a prankster rather than simply lazy.

Early life ~

Little is known about Perry's background other than that he was born in Key West, Florida, to West Indian immigrants. He was the second child of Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica (although some sources indicate the Bahamas) and Dora Monroe, a seamstress from Nassau, The Bahamas. Both of his parents came to the United States in the 1890s, where they married. By 1910, the family had moved north to Tampa, Florida. Another source says he was adopted when he was 11 years old and taken to live in Montgomery, Alabama.

His mother wanted him to be a dentist, so Perry was adopted by a quack dentist, for whom he blacked boots before running away at age 12 to join a carnival. He earned his living for a few years as a singer and tap dancer.

Vaudeville career ~

In his teens, Perry became a comic character actor. By the age of 20, Perry had become a vaudeville artist and the manager of a traveling carnival show. His stage name was a contraction of "step and fetch it". His accounts of how he adopted the name varied, but generally he claimed that it originated when he performed a vaudeville act with a partner. Perry won money betting on a racehorse named "Step and Fetch It", and his partner and he decided to adopt the names "Step" and "Fetchit" for their act. When Perry became a solo act, he combined the two names, which later became his professional name.

Film career ~

Perry played comic-relief roles in a number of films, all based on his character known as the "Laziest Man in the World". In his personal life, he was highly literate and had a concurrent career writing for The Chicago Defender. He signed a five-year studio contract following his performance in the film, In Old Kentucky (1927). The film's plot included a romantic connection between Perry and actress Carolynne Snowden, a subplot that was a rarity for black actors appearing in a white film during this era. Perry also starred in Hearts in Dixie (1929), one of the first studio productions to boast a predominantly black cast.

Jules Bledsoe provided Perry's singing voice for his role as Joe in the 1929 version of Show Boat. Fetchit did not sing "Ol' Man River", but he did sing "The Lonesome Road" in the film. In 1930, Hal Roach signed him to a film contract to appear in nine Our Gang episodes in 1930 and 1931. However, his only appearance in the series was in A Tough Winter. Perry's contract was canceled for unknown reasons after its release.

Jules Bledsoe - Hall Roach.

Perry was good friends with fellow comic actor Will Rogers. They appeared together in David Harum (1934), Judge Priest (1934), Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935), and The County Chairman (1935).

Will Rogers - Perry and Rogers in Judge Priest, 1934.

Fetchit and Muhammad Ali in 1964 ~

By the mid-1930s, Perry was the first black actor to become a millionaire. He appeared in 44 films between 1927 and 1939. In 1940, Perry temporarily stopped appearing in films, having been frustrated by his unsuccessful attempt to get equal pay and billing with his white costars. He returned in 1945, in part due to financial need, though he only appeared in eight films between 1945 and 1953. He declared bankruptcy in 1947, stating assets of $146. He returned to vaudeville; he appeared at the Anderson Free Fair in 1949 alongside Singer's Midgets. He became a friend of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali in the 1960s, allegedly converting to the Nation of Islam shortly before. (Other sources have said he was a lifelong Catholic; he was buried at Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic institution in Los Angeles.).

Muhammad Ali, 1967.

After 1953, Perry appeared in cameos in the made-for-television movie Cutter (1972) and the feature films Amazing Grace (1974) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). He found himself in conflict during his career with civil rights leaders who criticized him personally for the film roles that he portrayed. In 1968, CBS aired the hour-long documentary Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, written by Andy Rooney (for which Rooney received an Emmy Award) and narrated by Bill Cosby, which criticized the depiction of black people in American film, and especially singled out Stepin Fetchit for criticism. After the show aired, Perry unsuccessfully sued CBS and the documentary's producers for defamation of character.

Andy Rooney - Bill Cosby.

Music composition ~

In late November 1963, Perry collaborated with Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. and Esther Gordy Edwards in composing "May What He Lived for Live," a song intended to honor the memory of President John F. Kennedy in the wake of his assassination. Perry was credited under the pseudonym W.A. Bisson. The song was recorded in December 1963 by Liz Lands, who in 1968 performed the work at the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Death ~

Perry suffered a stroke in 1976, ending his acting career; he then moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. He died on November 19, 1985, from pneumonia and heart failure, at the age of 83. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles following a Catholic funeral Mass.

Legacy ~

Perry spawned imitators, such as Willie Best ("Sleep 'n Eat") and Mantan Moreland, the scared, wide-eyed manservant of Charlie Chan. Perry had actually played a manservant in the Charlie Chan series before Moreland in 1935's Charlie Chan in Egypt.

Willie Best - Mantan Moreland.

Perry appeared in one 1930 Our Gang short subject, A Tough Winter, at the end of the 1929–30 season. Perry signed a contract to star with the gang in nine films for the 1930–31 season and be part of the Our Gang series, but for some unknown reason, the contract fell through, and the gang continued without Perry. Previous to Perry entering films, the Our Gang shorts had employed several black child actors, including Allen Hoskins, Jannie Hoskins, Ernest Morrison, and Eugene Jackson. In the sound Our Gang era, black actors Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas were featured. The black performers' personas in Our Gang shorts were the polar opposites of Perry's persona.

In the 2005 book Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry, African-American critic Mel Watkins argued that the character of Stepin Fetchit was not truly lazy or simple-minded, but instead a prankster who deliberately tricked his white employers so that they would do the work instead of him. This technique, which developed during American slavery, was referred to as "putting on old massa", and it was a kind of con art with which black audiences of the time would have been familiar.

Awards and honors ~

Fetchit has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1976, despite popular aversion to his character, the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP awarded Perry a special NAACP Image Award. Two years later, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Personal life ~

In 1929, Perry married Dorothy Stevenson. She gave birth to their son, Jemajo, on September 12, 1930. In 1931, Dorothy filed for divorce, stating that Perry had broken her nose, jaw, and arm with "his fists and a broomstick." A few weeks after their divorce was granted, Dorothy told a reporter she hoped someone would "just beat the devil out of him," as he had done to her. When Dorothy contracted tuberculosis in 1933, Perry moved her to Arizona for treatment. She died in September 1934.

Perry reportedly married Winifred Johnson in 1937, but no record of their union has been found. On May 21, 1938, Winifred gave birth to a son, Donald Martin Perry. Their relationship ended soon after Donald's birth. According to Winifred's brother, Stretch Johnson, their father intervened after Perry knocked Winifred down the stairs and broke her nose. In 1941, Perry was arrested after Winifred filed a suit for child support. When he was released from jail, he told reporters, "Winnie and I were never married. It was all a publicity stunt. I want you and everybody else to know that that is not my baby. Winnie knows the baby isn't mine but she's trying to be smart." Winifred admitted that they were not legally married, but she insisted Perry was her son's father. The court ruled in her favor and ordered Perry to pay $12 a week (equivalent to $257 in 2024) for the child's support. Donald later took his stepfather's surname, Lambright.

Perry married Bernice Sims on October 15, 1951. Although they separated by the mid-1950s, they remained married for the rest of their lives. Bernice died on January 9, 1985.

For at least the great majority of his life, Perry was a devout Catholic, but he allegedly became a member of the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s, following the footsteps of his close friends Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, even appearing in the 1977 movie Muhammad Ali, the Greatest.

Notes ~

On April 5, 1969, Donald Lambright was traveling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he went on a spree shooting. Reportedly, he injured sixteen and killed four, including his wife, with an M1 carbine and a .30-caliber Marlin 336 carbine, before turning one of the rifles on himself. The 1969 Pennsylvania Turnpike shootings were officially ruled a murder-suicide, but the account of the circumstances upon which the ruling was based was questioned by Lambright's daughter and discussed at length in her 2005 self-published book about Stepin Fetchit. In a Los Angeles Times interview, Lincoln Perry stated his belief that his son was set up. Lambright's involvement with the Black Power movement at the peak of the COINTELPRO program was believed to be related to his death. Perry never provided child support for Lambright, and they only met two years before his son's violent death.

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FROM:

Actor. Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in Key West, Florida, he ran away from home at 14 to join a minstrel show and graduated to the vaudeville circuit as a comedic song-and-dance man. He allegedly took his stage name from a racehorse that had won him some money. His first screen appearance was in the silent "In Old Kentucky" (1927). In an era when most black roles in American films were still being played by white actors in blackface, his magnetic, scene-stealing presence created quite a stir. After signing with the Fox studio in 1929, he went on to become the first black actor to receive featured billing, and the first to become a millionaire. How he did it remains controversial to this day; the character he created, described as "the laziest man in the world," was a shiftless, shuffling, whining dolt that pandered to Hollywood's stereotypical views. Some of his films, among them "Hearts of Dixie" (1929), "Judge Priest" (1934), "Carolina" (1934), and "Steamboat 'Round the Bend" (1935), were set in a fictional Old South, with Fetchit playing a slave who, according to historian Gary Null, "just grinned for joy every time his laziness was rewarded with a kick in the pants." His roles in "The Big Fight" (1931), "Stand Up and Cheer" (1934), and "On the Avenue" (1937) were much the same, but in contemporary dress. Fetchit's superb comic timing and undeniable gifts as an actor led some reviewers to compare him to Chaplin and Keaton, but he was also a favorite target of the NAACP and black-owned newspapers, who branded him as a sell-out. He responded to his critics by saying he was just trying to make a living. At the height of his fame, he lived like a superstar, owning 16 cars, including a pink Rolls Royce, and a mansion staffed by 16 Chinese servants. But in the 1940s, with changing public tastes and competition from such black actors as Mantan Moreland and Willie Best, his career faded and he declared bankruptcy in 1947. He resurfaced in the late 1960s as a convert to the Black Muslim faith, in the entourage of boxer Muhammad Ali. In 1969, his son, Donald Perry, killed three people and then committed suicide on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The following year he sued CBS for defamation of character, claiming the network had used clips of his work "out of context" in a TV documentary about ethnic caricatures in Hollywood films. Although he lost, the lawsuit had some positive impact on his long-sullied reputation. Historians began to reexamine Fetchit's place in American Cinema, with revisionists claiming that his "laziest man" character represented a sly form of passive-resistance to the society of the 1930s. He made two final film appearances, in "Amazing Grace" (1974) and "Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood" (1976), before he was debilitated by a stroke. He died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. Bio by: Bobb Edwards.

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Dorothy Perry's Obituary ~

California Eagle (Los Angeles, California)21 Sep 1934, Fri Page 6

In the midst of a sea of floral tokens, while soft strains of music played by Marguerite Robinson-Chapman vied with the delicate fragrance of costly blossoms, rested the remains of Dorothy Stevenson Perry, 22, wife of the famous comedian, Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry) as hundreds from all walks of life passed by the scented bier last Monday night in the chapel of Angelus Funeral Home. This ceremony was the beginning of the last rites for the young woman who died at Dore sanatarium near Monrovia last Saturday following an illness of nearly two years. Final services were conducted at St. Patrick's Catholic church, 34th street near Central avenue, Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, with the Angelus Funeral Home in charge. A high requiem mass was read with Father Deamtio officiating. The deceased resided at 300 N. Bonnie Brae. She was born in Natchez, Mississippi, coming to Los Angeles 12 years ago. While working as a chorus girl in 1929 she met and married the popular screen idol. Their son, Jemajo, is four years old. Interment was at Calvary Cemetery.

Shocking both within and without the theatrical and motion picture profession, came the startling news that Dorothy Stevenson-Perry, girl wife of Stepin-Fetchit, had passed away after a long and lingering illness. In a beautiful though tragic setting the end came to the pretty auburn haired girl at a Sanitarium in Monrovia where she had staged a brave but losing fight against the dreaded white plague. Struck down by the grim reaper at the age of 22, she met him bravely when she sensed his black shadow had fallen across the threshold. "I'm going now", thank you all so kindly for all your kindness to me. But please leave the room as I want to pass away alone, she whispered with a childish smile on her face. "I am so happy", she concluded turning her face side ways to the pillow and closing her eyes as they all tipping silently out... All but Lincoln Perry, her husband, better known as "Stepin Fetchit". Heart-broken and speechless but determined to be present at the end, he hid behind a screen and was kneeling at her bedside as she drifted into the great beyond. Others who had remained all day sensing a crisis near, were her mother, Mrs. Lee Stephenson, from the family home at 456 N. Alvarado, a sister, Mary, former wife of Peter Johnson, son of Mr. S.P. Johnson, well known mortician and two aunts.

California Eagle (Los Angeles, California)21 Sep 1934, Fri Page 6.

The deceased girl was quite pretty with grey eyes and reddish brown hair, causing her to often be mistaken for a noted white star. Becoming enamored of her in 1929 while completing "Hearts in Dixie", "Stepin-Fetchit" woed her and they married after a brief courtship. Two years later their first baby was born. "Step" a very devout Catholic insisted that the child christened Jemajo, formed by the first two letters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At the height of his career, the comedian lavished many luxuries upon her including several automobiles. The large house on East 39th street in which they lived was the scene of many rounds of entertainment.

A second son was born in New York City a year after the year of Jemajo. Both babies survive the mother.

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1969 Pennsylvania Turnpike shootings ~

On April 5, 1969, Donald Martin Lambright, son of comedian Stepin Fetchit, was traveling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he went on a shooting spree. Reportedly, he injured sixteen and killed four, including his wife, with an M1 carbine and a .30-caliber Marlin 336 carbine, before turning one of the rifles on himself.

The shooting was officially ruled a murder-suicide, but the account of the circumstances upon which the ruling was based was questioned by Lambright's daughter and discussed at length in her 2005 self-published book about Stepin Fetchit. In a Los Angeles Times interview, Lincoln Perry stated his belief that his son was set up. Lambright's involvement with the Black Power movement at the peak of the COINTELPRO program was believed to be related to his death.

Victims ~

Traveling in the same car was the Keenan family:

Ignatius Keenan, dead.

Ruby Keenan, dead.

Paul Keenan, injured.

Critically injured:

Vincent Saitta, shot in the head; died at Harrisburg Hospital on May 9, 1969.

George A. Bonsell, injured.

Ernest R. Stephens, injured.

Kim Stevens, injured.

Traveling in the same car were the shooter and his wife:

Donald Martin Lambright, the shooter, committed suicide.

Annette Lambright, his wife, dead.

Perpetrator:

Donald Martin Lambright (born Donald Martin Perry; May 21, 1938 – April 5, 1969) was the son of comedian Stepin Fetchit, though they only met two years before Lambright's death. A child of divorce, he took the name of his stepfather, Dr. Middleton Hugher Lambright Jr. (November 7, 1908 - June 14, 1999), a thoracic surgeon in Cleveland. He grew up in New York City and Cleveland. He studied political science at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, after being discharged from the US Air Force in 1961, following four years of service and two tours in Vietnam. Just before the shooting, he quit his job at the Ohio state employment office in Cleveland.

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Hollywood, California Stepin Fetchit, well known movie comedian before he boards a plane to fly to New York for the National Convention.

Publicity still portrait of American actor Stepin Fetchit (born Lincoln Perry, 1902 - 1985) as he waves while stepping from an airplane .

Lincoln Perry with his new Chrysler.

In court on a charge of DWI.

Stepin Fetchit, famous comedian and actor.

Lincoln and his wife, Dorothy.

Lincoln and wife, Dorothy.

Perry with his 2nd wife, Bernice Simms.

Arrival, 19 October 1951. Stepin Fetchit, age 53, with his bride;Bernice Sims, 38. (Handout).;Supplementary material reads: 'Release by Jay Faggen Organization, 8440 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, California, HUdson 2-2329. Photo with caption: October 19: Stepin Fetchit, 53 years old, and his bride, Bernice Sims, 38 years old, returned to Hollywood via American Airlines from Tulsa, Oklahoma, today, where they were married last Monday at the St. Monica Church. Officiating at the ceremony was Father Patrick Bradley. Father Bradley discovered, financed and guided Stepin Fetchit to picture stardom in 1928. Bernice Sims is an active church woman in Tulsa. The couple will reside in Hollywood'.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images).

Donald Martin Lambright. Son of Lincoln Perry.

Malcolm X.

This signed photo sold at auction for $120.

1935.

As Penrod in the film Love is News, 1937.

Perry with child actor, Buckweat in an Our Gang short film.

Stepin Fetchit and Chubby Johnson in Bend of the River (1952).

Stepin Fetchit And Will Rogers In The Movie Scene Judge Priest.

Stepin Fetchit in Big Timers (1945).

Muhammad Ali, better known as Cassius Clay, talks to the press after his first workout since a hernia operation forced the postponement of his heavyweight title bout with ex-champ Sonny Liston. Seated next to Ali (or Clay) is Stepin Fetchit, the former movie actor who Clay called his 'secret strategist' and behind them is Rudolph 'Rudy' Clay (later Rahman Ali) in Chicago, Illinois on Febuary 19, 1965. (Photo by Stanley Weston/Getty Images).

Heavyweight Boxing: Muhammad Ali with celebrity comedian and performer Lincoln Perry in locker room before exhibition fight at Archer Hall Gymnasium on the Morehouse College campus, 1964. Perry went by the stage name Stepin Fetchit. Atlanta, GA 9/2/1970 CREDIT: Neil Leifer (Photo by Neil Leifer/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X15190 ).

Muhammad Ali, better known as Cassius Clay, talks to newsmen after his first workout since a hernia operation forced the postponement of his heavyweight title bout with ex-champ Sonny Liston. The talkative champion is scheduled to train for a week in preparation for the rematch with Liston, slated for May. Seated next to Ali (or Clay) is Stepin Fetchit, the former movie actor who Clay calls his "secret strategist." There is no word yet as to just what Fetchit, who is 72, is teaching the champ but Clay is usually more disposed to give advice than take it.