Bert Williams

For other people named Bert Williams, see Bert Williams (disambiguation).
Bert Williams
Williams, c. 1921
Born
Egbert Austin Williams

(1874-11-12)November 12, 1874
Nassau, Bahamas
DiedMarch 4, 1922(1922-03-04) (aged 47)
New York City, U.S.
Other namesEgbert Austin Williams
Occupation(s)Entertainer, actor, comedian
Years active1892–1922
SpouseLottie Williams
George Walker, Adah Overton Walker, and Bert Williams in In Dahomey (1903), the first Broadway musical to be written and performed by African Americans

Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time.[1] While some sources have credited him as being the first Black man to have a leading role in a film with Darktown Jubilee in 1914,[2] other sources have credited actor Sam Lucas with this same distinction for a different 1914 film, the World Film Company's Uncle Tom's Cabin.[3] Ebony stated that "Darktown Follies was the first attempt of an independent film company to star a black actor in a movie", and credited the work as beginning a period in independent American cinema that explored "black themes" within works made for African-American audiences by independent producers.[4]

Williams was by far the best-selling Black recording artist before 1920. In 1918, the New York Dramatic Mirror called Williams "one of the great comedians of the world."[5]

Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American entertainment. In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace, he became the first Black person to take a lead role on the Broadway stage, and did much to push back racial barriers during his three-decade-long career. Fellow vaudevillian W. C. Fields, who appeared in productions with Williams, described him as "the funniest man I ever saw—and the saddest man I ever knew."[6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Pines, Jim (1975). Blacks in Films. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 978-0289703267.
  3. ^ Berry, S. Torriano; Berry, Venise T. (2015). Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. XIX. ISBN 9781442247024.
  4. ^ John H. Johnson, ed. (June 1973). "Looking Back on Blacks In Films". Ebony: 40.
  5. ^ New York Dramatic Mirror, December 7, 1918.
  6. ^ Wintz, Cary D., Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Routledge (2004), p. 1210, ISBN 1-57958-389-X.