Juano G. "Juano" Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970) was a Puerto Rican stage and film actor who was a pioneer in the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

film industry. He made his silent picture debut in ''

The Life of General Villa ''The Life of General Villa'' (1914) is a silent biographical action–drama film starring Pancho Villa as himself, shot on location during a civil war. The film incorporated both staged scenes and authentic live footage from real battles d ...

'', and talking picture debut in an Oscar Micheaux film, '' The Girl from Chicago'', which was directed at black audiences. Hernández also performed in a series of dramatic roles in mainstream Hollywood movies. His participation in the film ''

Intruder in the Dust ''Intruder in the Dust '' is a 1948 crime novel written by American author William Faulkner. Taking place in Mississippi, it revolves around an African American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man. Overview The novel focuses on Lucas B ...

'' (1949) earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for "New Star of the Year." Later in life he returned to Puerto Rico, where he intended to make a film based on the life of

Sixto Escobar Sixto Escobar (March 23, 1913 – November 17, 1979) was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. Competing in the bantamweight division, he became Puerto Rico's first world champion. Escobar was born in Barceloneta and raised in San Juan. There he ...

Early years

Hernández was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

to Puerto Rican parents, Jose Guillermo and Clara de Ponce. With no formal education, he worked as a sailor and settled in Rio de Janeiro. He was hired by a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

and became an entertainer, making his first appearance as an acrobat in Rio de Janeiro in 1922. He later lived in the Caribbean and made his living as a professional boxer, fighting under the name Kid Curley.

Vaudeville and the stage

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, he worked in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and minstrel shows, sang in a church choir and was a radio script writer. During his spare time he perfected his diction by studying

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, thus enabling himself to work in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

. He co-starred in radio's first all-black

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

''We Love and Learn''. He also participated in the following radio shows: ''Mandrake the Magician'' (opposite Raymond Edward Johnson and

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British-American actress. Tandy appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe ...

), ''The Shadow'', ''Tennessee Jed,'' and ''Against the Storm''. He became a household name after his participation in ''The

Cavalcade of America ''Cavalcade of America'' is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented musicals, such as an adaptation of ''Show Boat'', and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially ...

'', a series which promoted

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

and inventiveness. He appeared in the Broadway shows ''Strange Fruit'' and ''Set My People Free''. His

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut was in the chorus of the 1927 musical production ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...

''.

Film career

Juano Hernandez in Stars in My Crown trailer

Hernández appeared in 26 films throughout his career. He portrayed a revolutionary soldier in the silent film ''

'', and his first "talkie" films were small roles in films produced by Oscar Micheaux, who made

race films Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

for black audiences. His talking film debut was Micheaux's '' The Girl from Chicago'' (1932), in which he was cast as a Cuban racketeer. He also has a speaking part, although uncredited, as a police officer in the 1932 crime drama and musical '' Harlem Is Heaven'', which stars

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

. In 1949, he acted in his first mainstream film, based on

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

's novel, ''

'', in which he played the role of Lucas Beauchamp, a poor Mississippi farmer unjustly accused of the murder of a white man. The film earned him a Golden Globe nomination for "New Star of the Year"."Early Black Cinema", ''True West Magazine'', August 2005, p. 22 The film was listed as one of the ten best of the year by the New York Times. Faulkner said of the film: "I'm not much of a moviegoer, but I did see that one. I thought it was a fine job. That Juano Hernández is a fine actor--and man, too." In the 1950 western '' Stars In My Crown'', directed by

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

, starring

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

, Hernández plays a

freed slave A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

who refuses to sell his land and faces an angry lynch mob. He was singled out for praise for his performance in the 1950 film '' The Breaking Point'' with

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

. ''The New York Times'' called his performance "quietly magnificent." He also received favorable notices for his performances in ''

Trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

'' (1955), about a politically charged court case, in which he played the judge, and Sidney Lumet's '' The Pawnbroker'' (1965). More than 50 years after its initial release, in 2001, film historian

Donald Bogle Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. Early years Bogle g ...

wrote that ''Intruder in the Dust'' broke new ground in the cinematic portrayal of blacks, and Hernández's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."

Television appearances

Over the years, Hernández made guest appearances on a dozen U.S. network television programs, appearing three times in 1960 and 1961 on the ABC series, '' Adventures in Paradise'', starring

Gardner McKay George Cadogan Gardner McKay (June 10, 1932 – November 21, 2001) was an American actor, artist, and author. He is best known for the lead role in the TV series '' Adventures in Paradise'', based loosely on the writings of James Michener. His ...

. In 1959, he starred in the '' Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' production of the

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by ...

short story ''

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature","An Occurrence at Owl Creek ...

''. Other television shows in which Hernandez appeared were '' Naked City'', '' The Defenders'', '' The Dick Powell Show'' and '' Studio One''.

Later years

Hernández returned to Puerto Rico late in his life. Together with Julio Torregrosa he wrote a script for a movie about the life of Puerto Rico's first boxing champion,

. He was unable to get funding in Puerto Rico and therefore he translated the script into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. He sent it to several companies in Hollywood and had it almost sold at the time of his death. In the last two years of his life he appeared in three films, ''

The Extraordinary Seaman ''The Extraordinary Seaman'' is a 1969 American comedy war film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda, Mickey Rooney, and Jack Carter. Apart from his participation in the documentaries ''That's Enterta ...

'' (1969) with

David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in '' Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...

, '' The Reivers'' (1969) with Steve McQueen, and '' They Call Me Mister Tibbs!'' (1970) with Sidney Poitier. He died in San Juan on July 17, 1970, of a cerebral hemorrhage 2 days before his 74th birthday, and was interred at Cementerio Buxeda Memorial Park,

Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico Trujillo Alto (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Northern Coastal Plain, on the boundary between the karst zone and Sierra de Luquillo, north of Caguas, and Gurabo; southeast of San Juan, and west of Carolina. Truj ...

Filmography

* ''

'' (1914) ... Revolutionary Soldier (uncredited) * '' The Girl from Chicago'' (1932) .... Gomez * '' Harlem Is Heaven'' (1932) .... Cop (uncredited) * '' Lying Lips'' (1939) .... Rev. Bryson * ''

The Notorious Elinor Lee ''The Notorious Elinor Lee'' is a 1940 race film directed, written, and co-produced by the African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. Plot Elinor Lee, a gangster’s moll living in the Harlem section of New York City, has signed up-and-coming box ...

'' (1940) ... John Arthur * ''

'' (1949) .... Lucas Beauchamp * '' Young Man with a Horn'' (1950) .... Art Hazzard * '' Stars in My Crown'' (1950) .... Uncle Famous Prill * '' The Breaking Point'' (1950) .... Wesley Park * ''

Kiss Me Deadly ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in th ...

'' (1955) .... Eddie Yeager * ''

'' (1955) .... Judge Theodore Motley * ''

Ransom! ''Ransom!'' is a 1956 American crime drama film examining the reactions of parents, police, and the public to a kidnapping. Written by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume, the film is based on a popular episode of ''The United States Steel Hour'' tit ...

'' (1956) .... Jesse Chapman aka Uncle Jesse * ''

Something of Value ''Something of Value'' is a 1957 American drama film directed by Richard Brooks and starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter, and Sidney Poitier. The film was reissued under the title ''Africa Ablaze''. The film, based on the book of the same name by ...

'' (1957) .... Njogu, Oath Giver * '' The Mark of the Hawk'' (1958) .... Amugu * ''

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

'' (1958) .... Rev. Charles Handy * ''

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'' (1958) .... Bernardo * '' Sergeant Rutledge'' (1960) .... Sgt. Matthew Luke Skidmore * ''

The Sins of Rachel Cade ''The Sins of Rachel Cade'' is a 1961 drama film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Angie Dickinson in the title role as well as Peter Finch and Roger Moore. Plot During World War II, Protestant medical missionary Rachel comes to the villag ...

'' (1961) .... Kalanumu * '' Two Loves'' (1961) .... Chief Rauhuia * ''Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed'' (1961) (TV) .... Standing Bear * ''

Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man ''Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man'' is a 1962 American adventure film directed by Martin Ritt based on Ernest Hemingway's semi-autobiographical character Nick Adams, and featuring Richard Beymer as Adams. A.E. Hotchner wrote the screenpl ...

'' (1962) .... Bugs * '' The Pawnbroker'' (1964) .... Mr. Smith * ''

'' (1969) .... Ali Shar * '' The Reivers'' (1969) .... Uncle Possum * '' They Call Me Mister Tibbs!'' (1970) .... Mealie Williamson (final film role)

References

External links

* * * *
Juano Hernandez in Hollywood Cinema at ''Centro Voices''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Juano 1896 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American male actors Male actors from San Juan, Puerto Rico Male actors from Los Angeles Puerto Rican male actors Puerto Rican people of Brazilian descent Puerto Rican radio actors Vaudeville performers