50 Fun Facts About Black Actors and Actresses

Which Gone with the Wind actress became the first African American to win an Academy Award?

Hattie McDaniel had to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room on the night she won her Oscar.

Which actor's likeness did Marvel use for its Ultimate Nick Fury comics, years before he played the role on film?

Samuel L. Jackson, a keen comic book reader, recognised himself on the page, and his agents' call to the publisher won a pledge to cast him.

Which star of Lilies of the Field became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

Sidney Poitier was born two months premature in Miami, where his Bahamian parents had travelled to sell tomatoes, and was not expected to survive.

Which X-Men star became the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress?

Halle Berry won for Monster's Ball, then three years later collected a Razzie for Catwoman in person, with her Oscar in her other hand.

Which Electric Company regular went on to play God, Nelson Mandela and a US president on film?

Morgan Freeman loathed his years on the children's show, its producer recalled, yet it gave him his first financial stability as an actor.

Which Sister Act star won an Oscar as a psychic in Ghost and later completed the EGOT?

Whoopi Goldberg, born Caryn Johnson, has said her stage name came from people comparing her to a whoopee cushion.

Which actor played Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall as well as Marvel's king of Wakanda?

Chadwick Boseman kept his 2016 colon cancer diagnosis private and went on working through surgeries and chemotherapy, completing several more films.

Which drama with an all-Black cast won Best Picture moments after La La Land was announced by mistake?

Moonlight got its award only after presenter Faye Dunaway read out the wrong title from a duplicate Best Actress envelope.

James Earl Jones, who overcame a severe childhood stutter, supplied the voice of which Star Wars villain?

Darth Vader was played in costume by David Prowse, and Jones asked to go uncredited for his voice work on the first two films.

Which Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West?

Will Smith has said he has no regrets, reckoning that Keanu Reeves played the part better than he would have himself.

Which actor won Oscars for Glory and Training Day and played Malcolm X for director Spike Lee?

Denzel Washington grew up barred from going to the cinema by his father, an ordained Pentecostal minister.

Which former Saturday Night Live star plays multiple roles in The Nutty Professor and voices Donkey in Shrek?

Eddie Murphy also voiced the dragon Mushu in Disney's Mulan, and won his first Emmy in 2020 for going back to host the sketch show.

Which actress, born in Mexico City and raised in Nairobi, won an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave?

Lupita Nyong'o owes her Spanish first name, a diminutive of Guadalupe, to a Luo tradition of naming a child after the events of the day.

Which How to Get Away with Murder star completed the EGOT when her memoir's audiobook won a Grammy?

Viola Davis had already become the first Black actress to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama, as the lawyer Annalise Keating.

Which actor, born Eric Bishop, won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Ray Charles?

Jamie Foxx picked an ambiguous first name because female comedians were often called up to perform first, and a surname honouring Redd Foxx.

Which actress played Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It and T'Challa's mother Ramonda for Marvel?

Angela Bassett became the first person nominated for an acting Oscar for a Marvel Studios film, for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Which future Morpheus of The Matrix lied about his age at 14 to be cast in Apocalypse Now?

Laurence Fishburne played a cocky 17-year-old gunner's mate from the Bronx in the Vietnam War epic.

Which Creed star first gained recognition playing Wallace in the first season of HBO's The Wire?

Michael B. Jordan went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing twin brothers in the period horror film Sinners.

Which actress won an Oscar as the feisty maid Minny in The Help and later starred in Hidden Figures?

Octavia Spencer also voiced Minny on the audiobook of Kathryn Stockett's novel, and her Academy Award came on her first nomination.

Which London-born actor played drug boss Stringer Bell in The Wire and the detective John Luther?

Idris Elba also performs as DJ Big Driis, a sideline that began when he helped out with his uncle's wedding DJ business as a teenager.

Which British star of Get Out later won an Oscar for playing Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton?

Daniel Kaluuya started out on the British teen drama Skins, playing Posh Kenneth and co-writing some of its episodes.

Which actor won the Best Actor Oscar as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland?

Forest Whitaker went to college on a football scholarship, then switched to music after a back injury and trained as an operatic tenor.

Which Boyz n the Hood lead won an Oscar as the wide receiver Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire?

Cuba Gooding Jr. started out as a breakdancer, performing with Lionel Richie at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Which actor played the vampire hunter Blade and the drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City?

Wesley Snipes has trained in martial arts since he was 12 and holds a fifth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate.

Which actor played veteran detective Roger Murtaugh opposite Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon films?

Danny Glover took part as a student in a five-month strike at San Francisco State to establish a Department of Black Studies.

Which talk show host earned an Oscar nomination as Sofia in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple?

Oprah Winfrey returned to the story two decades later as a producer of its Broadway musical adaptation.

Which rapper, born Dana Owens, earned an Oscar nomination as Matron Mama Morton in the musical Chicago?

Queen Latifah found the second half of her stage name, meaning delicate and very kind, in a book of Arabic names when she was eight.

Which singer placed seventh on American Idol, then won an Oscar for her screen debut in Dreamgirls?

Jennifer Hudson went on to collect an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony as well, completing the EGOT in 2022.

Which actress played mathematician Katherine Johnson in Hidden Figures and Cookie Lyon in the TV drama Empire?

Taraji P. Henson earned her Oscar nomination as the adoptive mother of Brad Pitt's title character in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Which actor won an Oscar as the tough drill instructor Sergeant Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman?

Louis Gossett Jr. became the first Black American to win Best Supporting Actor, having already won an Emmy as Fiddler in the miniseries Roots.

Which Carmen Jones star became the first African American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress?

Dorothy Dandridge was a recognised singer, yet the studio wanted an operatic voice and had her songs in the musical dubbed by a mezzo-soprano.

Which Oscar-nominated star of Sounder won a Tony Award at the age of 88 for The Trip to Bountiful?

Cicely Tyson began as a fashion model after an Ebony magazine photographer discovered her, and received an honorary Oscar in 2018.

Martin Luther King Jr. persuaded Nichelle Nichols not to resign from which 1960s television series?

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry already had her resignation letter, and she later spent decades helping NASA recruit women and minority astronauts.

Which longtime Reading Rainbow host had his breakthrough role as the young Kunta Kinte in Roots?

LeVar Burton presented the PBS children's series for 23 years and collected 12 Daytime Emmys as its host and executive producer.

Which filmmaker plays the tough grandmother Madea and turned a former Atlanta military base into film studios?

Tyler Perry first played Madea on stage in 1999, and also portrays her brother Joe and her nephew Brian.

Which actor played hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda and War Machine in Marvel films?

Don Cheadle took over the Marvel role of James Rhodes from Terrence Howard, starting with Iron Man 2.

Which British actor played the kidnapped Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave?

Chiwetel Ejiofor was 19 and three months into drama school when Steven Spielberg cast him in Amistad.

Which British actor played Finn, the stormtrooper who defects, in the Star Wars sequel trilogy?

John Boyega grew up in Peckham, south London, and first drew notice as a teenage gang leader in Attack the Block.

Which actor's Sam Wilson went from the winged Falcon to wielding Captain America's shield in Marvel films?

Anthony Mackie studied drama at Juilliard and made his film debut as the antagonist Papa Doc in 8 Mile.

Which actress plays Neytiri in the Avatar films and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy?

Zoe Saldaña trained as a dancer, which helped her land her first film role as a ballet student in Center Stage.

Which star of the 1968 sitcom Julia later played Dominique Deveraux on the prime-time soap Dynasty?

Diahann Carroll played a nurse in Julia, the first American TV series to star a Black woman whose character was not a servant or slave.

Which American-born dancer starred in the 1927 French film Siren of the Tropics and spied for the French Resistance?

Josephine Baker became the first Black woman inducted into the Panthéon in Paris, one of the highest honours France can give, in 2021.

Richard Roundtree played a private detective in which 1971 film with an Oscar-winning theme song by Isaac Hayes?

Shaft made Isaac Hayes the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and his soundtrack album won Grammys too.

Which star of Coffy and Foxy Brown returned in the title role of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown?

Pam Grier took the part nearly three decades after her first starring role, in a film that partly paid homage to her 1970s work.

Which Pulp Fiction actor won a Golden Globe for playing Don King, then handed it to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon?

Ving Rhames told the room that being an artist is about giving, and the audience rose in a standing ovation for a visibly touched Lemmon.

Which singer, twice an All-American footballer at Rutgers, performed Ol' Man River in the 1936 film Show Boat?

Paul Robeson also earned a Columbia law degree while playing in the NFL, and was later told to hand back his passport after criticising the Korean War.

Which singer performed the title song of the 1943 film Stormy Weather while on loan from MGM?

Lena Horne was kept out of leading roles because her films had to be re-edited for cities where theaters would not show Black performers.

Which singer played Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series and later voiced Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove?

Eartha Kitt got her first starring role from Orson Welles, who cast her as Helen of Troy and called her the most exciting woman in the world.

Which sister of choreographer Debbie Allen became the first Black actress to win the Tony for Best Actress in a Play?

Phylicia Rashad won for a 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, two decades after she first played the attorney Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

Which Green Book star, a former college basketball player, became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar?

Mahershala Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, a first name taken from the prophet Isaiah's second child in the Book of Isaiah.