Frank Henry Wilson (May 4, 1886 – February 16, 1956) was an American stage, radio, and film actor and writer.

Career

His father was Thomas M. Wilson. Frank started out in show business in vaudeville and minstrelsy. He appeared in many plays, including the original 1927 version of '' Porgy'' with

Rose McClendon Rose McClendon (August 27, 1884 – July 12, 1936) was a leading African-American Broadway theatre, Broadway actress of the 1920s. A founder of the Negro People's Theatre, she guided the creation of the Federal Theatre Project's African America ...

and Evelyn Ellis. In 1925, he was in the cast of a revival of O'Neill's ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed ...

'' in 1925. In 1929 he appeared in

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

's play '' All God's Chillun Got Wings'' at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

in London. He was also cast in

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withd ...

' 1949 play ''

The Big Knife ''The Big Knife'' is a 1955 American melodrama film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod S ...

''. He made his film debut in 1932 and later played in films that had stage origins: ''

'' (1933) and Warner Bros.' '' Green Pastures'' (1936) and ''

Watch on the Rhine ''Watch on the Rhine'' is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin and starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play '' Watch on the Rhine'' by Lillian Hellman. ''Watch on the Rh ...

'' (1943). Wilson made his television debut in 1953 before dying in 1956.

Selected filmography

Family

Wilson married actress Effie King, the stage name of Anna Green ''(maiden;'' 1888–1944), on June 12, 1907. They married in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

at St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church on West 53rd Street, a block that was a cultural center for artistic and intellectual African Americans. Effie King, at the time, was a dancer and

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

who performed as a duet with

Lottie Gee Lottie Gee ''(née'' Charlotte O. Gee; 17 August 1886 in Millboro, Virginia – 13 January 1973 in Los Angeles) was an American entertainer who performed in shows and musicals during the Harlem Renaissance. She is perhaps best known as a perfo ...

''(née'' Charlotte O. Gee; 1886–1973), a dancer and soprano in African-American vaudeville circuits. From about 1911 through 1913, King and Gee were known as

Ford Dabney Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 6 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings. Additionally, for ...

's Ginger Girls.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Frank H. 1886 births 1956 deaths Male actors from Manhattan People from Harlem Male actors from Queens, New York American male stage actors American male film actors American male television actors 20th-century American male actors 20th-century African-American male actors Federal Theatre Project people