Movies List
TV Show List
The Black Stallion

as Snoe

1979
Caribbean

as Quashy

1952
Apache Drums

as Jehu

1951
My Forbidden Past

as Pompey

1951
The Great Dan Patch

as Voodoo

1949
An Act of Murder

as Mr. Pope

1948
Two Smart People

as Train Porter

1946
Jungle Queen

as Kyba

1945
The Soul of a Monster

as Entertainer (uncredited)

1944
Jam Session

as Henry

1944
The Racket Man

as George the Butler

1944
Invisible Ghost

as Evans the Butler

1941
Broken Strings

as Arthur Williams

1940
Alice in Movieland

as Train Porter

1940
Way Down South

as Uncle Caton

1939
Prison Train

as Train Steward / Sam

1938
Spirit of Youth

as Frankie Walburn

1938
Jungle Menace

as Lightning

1937
Muss 'em Up

as

1936
Mysterious Crossing

as Lincoln

1936
Red Hot Tires

as Bud's Truck Partner

1935
Black Moon

as 'Lunch' McClaren

1934
Broadway Bill

as Whitey

1934
Laughter in Hell

as Abraham Jackson

1933
The Mind Reader

as Sam

1933
Blonde Venus

as

1932
Prestige

as Nham

1931
Clarence Muse Clarence Muse

Birthday

1889-10-14

Place of Birth

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first Negro to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years appearing in more than 150 movies. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an international law degree in 1911. He was acting in New York by the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players. Muse moved to Chicago for a while, and then moved to Hollywood and performed in Hearts in Dixie (1929), the first all-black movie. For the next fifty years, he worked regularly in minor and major roles. While with the Lafayette Players, Muse worked under the management of producer Robert Levy on productions that helped black actors to gain prominence and respect. In regards to the Lafayette Theatre's staging of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Muse said the play was relevant to black actors and audiences "because, in a way, it was every black man's story. Black men too have been split creatures inhabiting one body.". Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also wrote songs, plays, and sketches. In 1943, he became the first African American Broadway director with Run Little Chillun. Muse was also the co-writer of several notable songs. In 1931, with Leon René and Otis René, Muse wrote "When It's Sleepy Time Down South", also known as "Sleepy Time Down South". The song was sung by Nina Mae McKinney in the movie Safe in Hell (1931), and later became a signature song of Louis Armstrong. He was the major star in Broken Earth (1936), which related the story of a black sharecropper whose son miraculously recovers from fever through the father's fervent prayer. Shot on a farm in the South with nonprofessional actors (except for Muse), the film's early scenes focused in a highly realistic manner on the incredible hardship of black farmers, with plowing scenes. In 1938, Muse co-starred with boxer Joe Louis in Spirit of Youth, the fictional story of a champion boxer which featured an all black cast. Muse and Langston Hughes wrote the script for Way Down South (1939). Muse performed in Broken Strings (1940), as a concert violinist who opposes the desire of his son to play "swing". From 1955-56, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist (a part he was under consideration for in the original Warner Brothers film), and in 1959, he played Peter, the Honey Man, in Porgy and Bess. He appeared on Disney's TV miniseries The Swamp Fox. Other film credits include Buck and the Preacher (1972), The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) and as Gazenga's Assistant, "Snapper" in Car Wash (1976). His last acting role was in The Black Stallion (1979).
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