Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor and musician. He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). He was also a prolific voice-over actor who provided the voices of Meadowlark Lemon in the Harlem Globetrotters animated TV series, Jazz the Autobot in The Transformers and The Transformers: The Movie (1986), the title character in Hong Kong Phooey, and Scat Cat in the animated film The Aristocats (1970).
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. It was produced by the Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films for broadcast on the ITV network in the UK between 2 January 1975 and 28 December 1978.
New Jack City is a 1991 American crime action film based on an original story and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, and directed by Mario Van Peebles in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson, Bill Cobbs, Bill Nunn, and Van Peebles. Its plot follows Nino Brown, a drug lord in New York City during the crack epidemic, and Scotty Appleton, an NYPD detective who vows to end Nino's rise to power by going undercover to work for Nino's gang.
Sister Act is a 1992 American musical crime comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick. It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to join a convent after being placed in a witness protection program. It also features Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel.
Chester Bomar Himes was an American writer. His works, some of which have been filmed, include If He Hollers Let Him Go, published in 1945, and the Harlem Detective series of novels for which he is best known, set in the 1950s and early 1960s and featuring two black policemen called Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. In 1958, Himes won France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death. Early in her career, she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance; she became based in the UK after 1938. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
Logan Craig O'Brien is an American child actor and singer. O'Brien is best known for his role as Lucas Jones on General Hospital.
Horace Raymond Huntley was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs as the pragmatic family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon.
Juanita Hall was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary – a role that garnered her the Tony Award – and Flower Drum Song as Madame Liang.
Jitterbugs is a 1943 Laurel and Hardy feature film produced by Sol M. Wurtzel and directed by Mal St.Clair.
Frederick O'Neal was an American actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater, the British Negro Theatre, and was the first African-American president of the Actors' Equity Association. He was also known for his work behind the scenes as a revolutionary trade unionist.
Savannah Churchill was an American rhythm and blues singer in the 1940s and 1950s. She is best known for her number-one R&B single "I Want To Be Loved ."
Miss London Ltd. is a 1943 British, black-and-white, comedy, musical, war film, directed by Val Guest and starring Arthur Askey and Evelyn Dall. It was produced by Edward Black, Maurice Ostrer, Fred Gunn and Gainsborough Pictures. It was Guest's directorial debut.
Sepia Cinderella is a 1947 American musical race film directed by Arthur H. Leonard. The film is notable for musical numbers by vocalists Billy Daniels and Sheila Guyse, and for a brief guest appearance by former child star Freddie Bartholomew, who is onscreen as himself for five minutes, telling gags to recharge his post-war career. It was the film debut of Sidney Poitier, who had an uncredited role.
Dorothy Leigh Mainor , known as Dorothy Maynor, was an American soprano, concert singer, and the founder of the Harlem School of the Arts. Maynor is noted as the first African–American to sing at a presidential inauguration, performing at President Harry S. Truman's inaugural gala in 1949.
We Work Again is a 1937 ephemeral film produced by the Work Projects Administration to promote its employment and training efforts for African-Americans during the Great Depression. Various jobs are shown, including public construction projects, domestic service and health care training, adult education programs and performing arts. It is particularly noted for containing the only existing footage of the 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth, directed by Orson Welles and featuring an all-black cast.
Dancing with Crime is a 1947 British film noir film directed by John Paddy Carstairs, starring Richard Attenborough, Barry K. Barnes and Sheila Sim. A man hunts down the killer of his lifelong friend.
Sheila Guyse, was an American singer and actress, who performing on stage and screen during the 1940s and 1950s.
