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Bill Robinson is a Actor American born on 25 may 1878 at Richmond (USA)

Bill Robinson

Bill Robinson
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Birth name William Luther Robinson
Nationality USA
Birth 25 may 1878 at Richmond (USA)
Death 25 november 1949 (at 71 years) at New York City (USA)

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology, starting in the age of minstrel shows, moving to vaudeville, Broadway, the recording industry, Hollywood radio, and television. According to dance critic Marshall Stearns, “Robinson's contribution to tap dance is exact and specific. He brought it up on its toes, dancing upright and swinging”, giving tap a “…hitherto-unknown lightness and presence.” His signature routine was the stair dance, in which Robinson would tap up and down a set of stairs in a rhythmically complex sequence of steps, a routine that he unsuccessfully attempted to patent. Robinson is also credited with having introduced a new word, copacetic, into popular culture, via his repeated use of it in vaudeville and radio appearances.

A popular figure in both the black and white entertainment worlds of his era, he is best known today for his dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films during the 1930s, and for starring in the musical Stormy Weather (1943), loosely based on Robinson's own life, and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Robinson used his popularity to challenge and overcome numerous racial barriers, including becoming the following:


one of the first minstrel and vaudeville performers to appear without the use of blackface makeup
one of the earliest African American performers to go solo, overcoming vaudeville's two colored rule
a headliner in the first African-American Broadway show, Blackbirds of 1928
the first African American to appear in a Hollywood film in an interracial dance team (with Temple in The Little Colonel)
the first African American to headline a mixed-race Broadway production
During his lifetime and afterwards, Robinson also came under heavy criticism for his participation in and tacit acceptance of racial stereotypes of the era, with critics calling him an Uncle Tom figure. Robinson resented such criticism, and his biographers suggested that critics were at best incomplete in making such a characterization, especially given his efforts to overcome the racial prejudice of his era. In his public life Robinson led efforts to:


persuade the Dallas police department to hire its first African American policemen
lobby President Roosevelt during World War II for more equitable treatment of African American soldiers
stage the first integrated public event in Miami, a fundraiser which, with the permission of the mayor, was attended by both black and white city residents
Despite being the highest-paid black performer of the era, Robinson died penniless in 1949, and his funeral was paid for by longtime friend Ed Sullivan. Robinson is remembered for the support he gave to fellow performers, including Fred Astaire, Lena Horne, Jesse Owens, and the Nicholas brothers.

Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ann Miller credited him as a teacher and mentor, and Miller credits him with having “changed the course of my life.” Gregory Hines produced and starred in a biographical movie about Robinson for which he won the NAACP Best actor Award. In 1989, the U.S. Congress designated May 25, Robinson's birthday, as National Tap Dance Day.

Biography

Little is known of Robinson's first marriage to Lena Chase in 1907. They had no children before they separated in 1916, and the marriage ended in 1922. His second wife was Fannie S. Clay whom he married shortly after his divorce from Chase. They divorced in 1943. His third marriage was in 1944 to Elaine Plaines in Columbus, Ohio, and they remained together until Robinson’s death in 1949. There were no children from any of the marriages.

Political figures and celebrities appointed Robinson an honorary mayor of Harlem, a lifetime member of policemen's associations and fraternal orders, and a mascot of the New York Giants major league baseball team. Robinson reciprocated with open-handed generosity and frequently credited the white dancer James Barton for his contribution to his dancing style.

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Bill Robinson (15 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Hanging Up
Hanging Up (2000)
, 1h34
Directed by Diane Keaton
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Films about families
Actors Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Adam Arkin, Cloris Leachman
Roles Doctor on Soap
Rating48% 2.4031952.4031952.4031952.4031952.403195
Georgia Mozell, Eve Marks and Maddy Mozell are adult sisters. Georgia (Keaton) is the editor of her own wildly successful self-titled women’s magazine. She strives for publicity at any cost. Party planner Eve (Ryan) is the mother hen of the group, not only of her own family, but also of her siblings and father as their mother, Pat (Leachman), not only emotionally left their father when they divorced, but her daughters as well. And Maddy (Kudrow) is a vacuous soap opera actress who has always struggled for her own identity. Despite being as busy with her own life as the others, Eve is the only one of the three who deals with the long term hospitalization of their cantankerous seventy-nine-year-old father, Lou Mozell, when he enters the early stages of dementia, and the associated outcomes of that hospitalization. Eve’s caring for Lou is despite an especially hurtful incident with him seven years earlier. As the emotional aspect of looking after Lou becomes more and more stressful, Eve has to figure out how to maintain her own sanity, while dealing with her sisters, who believe they too are part of their father’s care while they don’t lift a finger to help.
Stormy Weather, 1h18
Directed by Andrew L. Stone
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Katherine Dunham, Fayard Nicholas, Dooley Wilson, Stymie Beard
Roles Bill Williamson
Rating72% 3.6436253.6436253.6436253.6436253.643625
Évocation de numéros de danse, de musiciens, de chanteurs et chanteuses qui ont marqué l'histoire du jazz entre 1919 et 1940.
Just Around the Corner, 1h10
Directed by Irving Cummings, Robert D. Webb
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Children's films
Actors Shirley Temple, Charles Farrell, Claude Gillingwater, Joan Davis, Amanda Duff, Bert Lahr
Roles Samuel G. Henshaw
Rating63% 3.1932853.1932853.1932853.1932853.193285
La petite Penny Hale quitte son pensionnat pour retrouver son père, Jeff Hale, un architecte, habitant le penthouse d'une résidence de New York. Mais elle découvre en arrivant dans l'appartement, qu'il est occupé par une autre famille car son père, ruiné est devenu électricien et habite désormais le sous-sol. Ayant changé de statut dans l'immeuble, Penny est plusieurs fois réprimandée le concierge, puis se lie d'amitié avec Milton Ramsby, le jeune fils de la famille habitant désormais le penthouse.
Up the River, 1h15
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Actors Preston Foster, Tony Martin, Phyllis Brooks, Slim Summerville, Arthur Treacher, Alan Dinehart, Sr.
Roles Memphis Jones
Rating61% 3.083323.083323.083323.083323.08332
This script must be run from the command line
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 1h20
Directed by Allan Dwan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Children's films
Actors Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, Gloria Stuart, Helen Westley, Bill Robinson, William Demarest
Roles Aloysius
Rating69% 3.4952453.4952453.4952453.4952453.495245
Rebecca Winstead (Shirley Temple), a musically talented orphan, is under the guardianship of her stepfather Harry Kipper (William Demarest). She auditions for the radio role of Little Miss America and wins it, but leaves the studio believing she lost it. Kipper regards her as a loser and a burden, and dumps her on the farm of her Aunt Miranda.
One Mile from Heaven, 1h7
Directed by Allan Dwan
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Claire Trevor, Sally Blane, Douglas Fowley, Fredi Washington, Bill Robinson, Ralf Harolde
Roles Officer Joe Dudley
Rating63% 3.18753.18753.18753.18753.1875
The Littlest Rebel, 1h10
Directed by David Butler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Musical
Themes Films about families, Political films, Films based on plays, Children's films
Actors John Boles, Jack Holt, Karen Morley, Bill Robinson, Shirley Temple, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams
Roles Uncle Billy
Rating66% 3.343763.343763.343763.343763.34376
The film opens in the ballroom of the Cary plantation on Virgie’s sixth birthday. Her slave Uncle Billy dances for her party guests, but the celebration is brought abruptly to an end when a messenger arrives with news of the assault on Fort Sumter and a declaration of war. Virgie’s father is ordered to the Armory with horse and side-arms. He becomes a scout for the Confederate Army, crossing enemy lines to gather information. On these expeditions, he sometimes briefly visits his family at their plantation behind Union lines.
The Little Colonel, 1h20
Directed by David Butler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Musical theatre, Musical
Themes Children's films
Actors Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Venable, John Lodge, Bill Robinson, Sidney Blackmer
Roles Walker
Rating69% 3.492383.492383.492383.492383.49238
Shortly after the American Civil War, southern belle Elizabeth Lloyd (Evelyn Venable) marries a northerner, Jack Sherman (John Lodge). Her father Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) disowns her in anger and retaliation. Elizabeth and Jack move west where they become parents of a girl they name Lloyd Sherman.
The Big Broadcast of 1936, 1h37
Directed by Norman Taurog
Origin USA
Genres Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Bing Crosby, Jack Oakie, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Ethel Merman, Lyda Roberti
Roles Specialty
Rating57% 2.856442.856442.856442.856442.85644
Radio station W.H.Y. owner Spud Miller (Jack Oakie), also functions as the station's only announcer while his comic partner Smiley Goodwin (Henry Wadsworth) serves as the house singer, Lochinvar, The Great Lover, "the idol of millions of women." Both Spud and Smiley play the role of Lochinvar. Facing the prospect of bankruptcy, Spud welcomes the suggestions of George Burns and Gracie Allen, who attempt to sell an invention, The Radio Eye, invented by Gracie Allen's uncle, a television device which can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere. Burns and Allen ask Miller for an advance of $5,000 for the invention. Spud decides to enter an international broadcast competition with a prize of $250,000.
Dixiana
Dixiana (1930)
, 1h40
Directed by Luther Reed, Fred Fleck
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical
Themes Musical films
Actors Bebe Daniels, Joseph Cawthorn, Bert Wheeler, Jobyna Howland, Robert Woolsey, Bill Robinson
Roles Specialty Dancer
Rating52% 2.6145752.6145752.6145752.6145752.614575
Dixiana Caldwell and her friends, Peewee and Ginger, are circus performers in the antebellum South. When Dixiana falls in love with a young Southern aristocrat, Carl Van Horn, she leaves the circus where she is employed and, with Peewee and Ginger, accompanies Carl to his family's plantation in order to meet Van Horn's family. At first thrilled with the news of their impending nuptials, Carl's father and stepmother, Cornelius and Birdie Van Horn, throw a lavish party for the couple. However, Peewee and Ginger inadvertently disclose Dixiana's background as a circus performer, creating a scandal for the elder Van Horns.