Mantan Moreland
Biography
Mantan Moreland, an American comedian and actor, worked steadily in Hollywood through the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, to a Dixieland bandleader, he was performing as an adolescent and was dancing in the Shuffle Along roadshow by 1923. He toured in vaudeville, reached Broadway with Blackbirds of 1928, and changed the spelling of his name to Mantan in 1941. After teaming with Flournoy Miller he appeared in low-budget movies made for African American audiences, among them Lucky Ghost (1942), before Monogram Pictures cast him opposite Frankie Darro. Known for his bulging eyes and cackling laugh, he became one of Hollywood's favorite supporting players, and in 1944 he began playing Birmingham Brown, Charlie Chan's chauffeur. After attitudes toward black performers on screen shifted, he found less work in the 1950s, and in 2004 he joined the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame.
71years old at death
- Born Monroe
- Died Hollywood
- Star sign: VirgoThe sign runs August 23 to September 22
- Also credited as Moreland and Manton Moreland
Movie Career
- Films
- 10
- Career span
- 32 years1938 to 1970
First and latest
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First role
The earliest surviving notice for Moreland comes from 1923, when he was 21 and touring America with the Shuffle Along roadshow company, an all-black-cast revue. His specialty at the time was dancing.
Getting ready for a role
Moreland became Flournoy Miller's understudy in the 1930s and learned comedy routines there, including the famous "indefinite talk" routine, in which the performers held entire conversations speaking only in fragments.
Mantan Moreland movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Seven actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Cy Kendall's page
Joan Woodbury's page
Dick Purcell's page
Laurence Criner's page
Arthur Ray2 films together, 1938 to 1942
Arthur Ray's page
Monte Hawley2 films together, 1938 to 1942
Monte Hawley's page
Also two films together1 more actor
- Vernon McCallaLucky Ghost (1942) and Gang Smashers (1938)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.