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A Man Is Ten Feet Tall (1955)
Character: Tommy Tyler
Axel, secretly AWOL from the army, joins a black waterfront worker in his fight against bigotry. Television film for The Philco Television Playhouse later remade as Edge of the City (1957).
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Go Man Go (1954)
Character: Inman Jackson
The story of Abe Saperstein and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters.
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Afro Promo (1997)
Character: Self (archive footage)
A series of thirty-two trailers put together to illustrate the film industry's attitude to and packaging of African-American screen imagery.
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Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light (2000)
Character: N/A
Actor/director Sidney Poitier discusses his life and career. He tells of his upbringing in Jamaica; the difficulties he encountered in New York City at the start of his career; his involvement in the US civil-rights movement; and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Friends and acquaintances, as well as other performers, give their insights about what makes him so special.
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Quincy Jones: In the Pocket (2001)
Character: Self
Composer, record, TV and film producer, arranger, instrumentalist, magazine founder and multi-media entrepreneur - Quincy Jones has done it all. In his 50-year career, he has won 26 Grammy awards and an Emmy, earned seven Oscar nominations and helped ignite the career of megastar Michael Jackson. American Masters takes an all-access look at this remarkable star of the world stage. Narrated by Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones: In the Pocket features interviews with friends and contemporaries such as former President Bill Clinton, Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. This candid profile also includes behind-the-scenes footage of the historic "We Are the World" all-star recording session, in-studio clips of Frank Sinatra and other exclusive visual materials.
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The Mark of the Hawk (1957)
Character: Obam
The man called Obam struggles with the increasingly hostile forces facing each other in a colonial African country. The African natives want their land and lives back from the British colonists. Obam's motives are questioned by his own people, in particular his brother Kanda. With the help of his wife Renee and missionary Bruce Craig, will he be able to get things under control before the country self-destructs? Written by Greg Bruno
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Free of Eden (1999)
Character: Will Cleamons
Story about Will Cleamons, a former teacher-turned-businessman who agrees to tutor 18-year-old high school dropout, Nicole Turner. Much to his surprise, their relationship not only helps Nicole build a future, but helps Cleamons put his personal life back together.
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Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998)
Character: Reverend Msimangu (archive footage)
A look at the confluence of the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. It begins in Harlem, measures the impact of Paul Robeson and the campaign to bring him down, looks at the role of HUAC, J. Edgar Hoover and of journalists such as Ed Sullivan, and ends with a tribute to Canada Lee. Throughout are interviews with men and women who were there, including Dick Campbell of the Rose McLendon Players and Fredrick O'Neal of the American Negro Theatre. In the 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communism was one more tool to maintain Jim Crow and to keep down African-Americans.
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Sing Your Song (2012)
Character: Self
Most people know the lasting legacy of Harry Belafonte, the entertainer. This film unearths his significant contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and to social justice globally.
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And the Oscar Goes To... (2014)
Character: Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
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Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (2013)
Character: Self
Documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington, a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The film tells the story of how the march for jobs and freedom began, speaking to the people who organised and participated in it. Using rarely seen archive footage the film reveals the background stories surrounding the build up to the march as well as the fierce opposition it faced from the JFK administration, J Edgar Hoover's FBI and widespread claims that it would incite racial violence, chaos and disturbance. The film follows the unfolding drama as the march reaches its ultimate triumphs, gaining acceptance from the state, successfully raising funds and in the end, organised and executed peacefully.
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Mandela and de Klerk (1997)
Character: Nelson Mandela
Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine both received Emmy nominations for their performances in this made-for-TV movie. The plot follows Nelson Mandela's 27-year struggle to end apartheid.
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David and Lisa (1998)
Character: Dr. Jack Miller
A psychiatrist tries to treat an emotionally disturbed teenage boy who has a pathological fear of being touched. The only person who can communicate emotionally with the young patient is a girl suffering from split personalities who speaks in rhymes and withdraws from anyone who refuses to do the same.
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The Strolling '20s (1966)
Character: Self
Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier travel down memory lane to see what life was like back in the 1920s. Harry Belafonte introduces this musical, written by poet and playwright Langston Hughes, which pays tribute to Harlem in the 1920's. Sidney Poitier provides commentary on the era throughout the program, and George Kirby and Nipsey Russell portray various Harlem characters. Program highlights include: Gloria Lynne singing "Good Ol' Wagon"; Brownie McGhee singing "Let the Deal Go Down"; Diahann Carroll singing "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"; Sammy Davis, Jr., singing and tap dancing to "Doin' the New Low Down"; Joe Williams singing "Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning"; and Duke Ellington performing "Sophisticated Lady" with a sextet.
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Night of 100 Stars II (1985)
Character: Self
This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.
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The Slender Thread (1965)
Character: Alan Newell
Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when at the clinic alone, a woman calls up the number and tells Alan that she needs to talk to someone. She informs Alan she took a load of pills, and he secretly tries to get help. During this time, he learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die. Can Alan get the cavalry to save her in time before it's too late?
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I Am Not Your Negro (2017)
Character: Various Roles (archive footage)
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
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Denzel Washington : Un modèle américain (2022)
Character: Self (archive footage)
In 30 years of a deeply committed career and 50 roles, Denzel Washington, double-Oscar winner, placed the figure of the Black man in all its complexity at the heart of the American paradoxes: from Black activist, rebel soldier to gangster torn between violence and charity. Voted best actor of the 21st century by the New York Times a few months ago, Denzel Washington, 65, has risen to the top of American cinema. As an Actor, director and producer, he has shaken up a "color line" as immutable as it is subtle. Often identified with his characters, he reveals himself to be disconcerting and paradoxical. As if he were holding up a mirror to America in which all of its contradictions and failings were reflected. A documentary that chronicles the extraordinary career of the world-renowned African-American actor.
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No Way Out (1950)
Character: Dr. Luther Brooks
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
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The Red Ball Express (1952)
Character: Robertson
August 1944: proceeding with the invasion of France, Patton's Third Army has advanced so far toward Paris that it cannot be supplied. To keep up the momentum, Allied HQ establishes an elite military truck route.
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Lilies of the Field (1963)
Character: Homer Smith
An unemployed construction worker heading out west stops at a remote farm in the desert to get water when his car overheats. The farm is being worked by a group of East European Catholic nuns, headed by the strict mother superior, who believes the man has been sent by God to build a much needed church in the desert.
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Pressure Point (1962)
Character: Doctor
An African-American prison psychiatrist finds the boundaries of his professionalism sorely tested when he must counsel a disturbed inmate with bigoted Nazi tendencies.
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Brother John (1971)
Character: John Kane
An enigmatic man returns to his Alabama hometown as his sister is dying of cancer and incites the suspicion of notable town officials.
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The Lost Man (1969)
Character: Jason Higgs
A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle."
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Reinventing Elvis: The 68' Comeback (2023)
Character: Self (archive footage)
The making of Elvis Presley's famous live TV concert and the chaotic behind the scenes. It was the most-watched television event of the year with nearly half of the audience tuned in to watch Presley perform in his iconic black leather suit.
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Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Character: Gregory W. Miller
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in education, challenging both the school staff and the pupils. He is subjected to violence as well as duplicitous schemes.
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Something of Value (1957)
Character: Kimani Wa Karanja
As Kenya's Mau Mau uprising tears the country apart, former childhood friends Kimani (Sidney Poitier), a native, and Peter (Rock Hudson), a British colonist, find themselves on opposite sides of the struggle in this provocative drama. Though each is devoted to his cause, both wish for a more moderate path -- but their hopes for a peaceful resolution are thwarted by rage, colonial arrogance and escalating violence on both sides.
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The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)
Character: Self
In this tribute to her frequent co-star and longtime love, Katharine Hepburn hosts a behind-the-scenes look at Spencer Tracy's personal and professional life that features intimate personal accounts, interviews and clips from his most acclaimed work on the silver screen.
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Duel at Diablo (1966)
Character: Toller
In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Native wife, and a housewife abandons her husband to rejoin her Apache lover's tribe.
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Separate But Equal (1991)
Character: Thurgood Marshall
A dramatization of the events of Brown vs. Board of Education, the American court case that destroyed the legal validity of racial segregation.
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King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the documentary follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement. Rare footage of King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of other high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause, punctuated by heartfelt testimonials by some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
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The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999)
Character: Noah Dearborn
In the small Southern community of Twin Pines, GA, lives Noah Dearborn, a master craftsman and farmer who cherishes his solitude almost as much as the local townspeople cherish him — especially restaurant owner Sarah McClellan. But when greedy real estate developers set their sights on Noah's land and he rejects their six-figure offer, this taciturn man is forced to summon all his strength in order to defend not only his property and way of life, but his sanity.
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Let's Do It Again (1975)
Character: Clyde Williams
Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.
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Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)
Character: Reverend Msimangu
In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a criminal. Reverend Misimangu is a young South African clergyman who helps find his missing son-turned-thief and sister-turned-prostitute in the slums of Johannesburg.
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The Bedford Incident (1965)
Character: Ben Munceford
During a routine patrol, a reporter is given permission to interview a hardened cold-war warrior and captain of the American destroyer USS Bedford. The reporter gets more than he bargained for when the Bedford discovers a Soviet sub and the captain begins a relentless pursuit, pushing his crew to breaking point.
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The Jackal (1997)
Character: Carter Preston
Hired by a powerful member of the Russian mafia to avenge an FBI sting that left his brother dead, a psychopathic hitman known only as The Jackal proves an elusive target for the people charged with the task of bringing him down: a deputy FBI director, a Russian MVK Major, and a jailed IRA terrorist who can recognize him.
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Edge of the City (1957)
Character: Tommy Tyler
An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager.
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A Warm December (1973)
Character: Dr. Matt Younger
Widower Dr. Matt Younger and his daughter go to London for a month of dirt-bike racing. While there, Dr. Younger is surprised by finding himself attracted to Catherine, a charming but elusive woman who seems to have some mysterious men following her. A romance slowly develops between the doctor and Catherine, but there are complications to their happiness.
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Mr. SOUL! (2018)
Character: Self (archive footage)
On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, one fearless black pioneer reconceived a Harlem Renaissance for a new era, ushering giants and rising stars of black American culture onto the national television stage. He was hip. He was smart. He was innovative, political, and gay. In his personal fight for social equality, this man ensured the Revolution would be televised. The man was Ellis Haizlip. The Revolution was soul!
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Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)
Character: Narrator (voice)
This Academy Award-winning documentary short Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist, narrated by Sidney Poitier, traces the career of Paul Robeson through his activism and his socially charged performances of his signature song, “Ol’ Man River.”
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Little Nikita (1988)
Character: Roy Parmenter
Roy Parmenter is an FBI agent in San Diego; 20 years ago his partner was killed by a Soviet spy, nicknamed Scuba, still at large. Scuba is now trying to extort the Soviets; to prove he's serious, he's killing their agents one by one, including "sleepers," agents under deep cover awaiting orders. Roy interviews a high school lad, Jeff Grant, an applicant to the Air Force Academy. In a routine background check, Roy discovers that Jeff's parents are sleepers. He must see if Jeff is also a spy, confront the parents yet protect them, and catch his nemesis. Meanwhile, the Soviets have sent their own spy-catcher, the loner Karpov, to reel in Scuba. Alliances shift; it's cat and mouse.
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Band of Angels (1957)
Character: Rau-Ru
Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widowed father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly Amantha's world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father's mistress.
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The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Character: Simon of Cyrene
From his birth in Bethlehem to his death and eventual resurrection, the life of Jesus Christ is given the all-star treatment in this epic retelling. Major aspects of Christ's life are touched upon, including the execution of all the newborn males in Egypt by King Herod; Christ's baptism by John the Baptist; and the betrayal by Judas after the Last Supper that eventually leads to Christ's crucifixion and miraculous return.
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A Patch of Blue (1965)
Character: Gordon Ralfe
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.
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The Last Brickmaker in America (2001)
Character: Henry Cobb
A man must cope with the loss of his wife and the obsolescence of his job before finding redemption by becoming a role model to an equally lost 13-year-old.
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Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night (1988)
Character: Self - Audience Member
Recorded live at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, Roy is joined by an eclectic ensemble of rock and roll superstars including Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, J.D. Souther, Jennifer Warnes, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits.
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Porgy and Bess (1959)
Character: Porgy
In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, loves the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.
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Good-bye, My Lady (1956)
Character: Gates Watson
An old man and a young boy who live in the southeastern Mississippi swamps are brought together by the love of a dog.
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To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Character: Mark Thackeray
After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray retires and returns to Chicago. There, however, the challenge of teaching kids in an inner city school proves to be too much to resist.
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A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Character: Walter Lee Younger
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
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Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes / Feeling Heart (2017)
Character: Self
On March 11, 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s 'A Raisin in the Sun' opened on Broadway and changed the face of American theater forever. As the first-ever black woman to author a play performed on Broadway, she did not shy away from richly drawn characters and unprecedented subject matter. The play attracted record crowds and earned the coveted top prize from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. While the play is seen as a groundbreaking work of art, the timely story of Hansberry’s life is far less known.
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A Piece of the Action (1977)
Character: Manny Durrell
How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.
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Sidney (2022)
Character: Self
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
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Paris Blues (1961)
Character: Eddie Cook
During the 1960s, two American jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls and must decide between music and love.
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Virgin Island (1959)
Character: Marcus
A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.
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For Love of Ivy (1968)
Character: Jack Parks
A white family has had the same Black maid for many years. When she tells them she wants to go back to school and will be leaving soon, the 20ish year old son decides what she needs is a change and begins searching for a man to wine and dine her, but who won't marry her, thinking that this will distract her from her plans. The man he finds doesn't entirely cooperate.
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To Sir, with Love (1967)
Character: Mark Thackeray
A British Guianese engineer starts a job as a high school teacher in London’s East End, where his uninterested and delinquent pupils are in desperate need of attention and care.
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Sneakers (1992)
Character: Crease
When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his 'sneakers' must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box from their blackmailers.
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The Defiant Ones (1958)
Character: Noah Cullen
Two convicts—a white racist and an angry black man—escape while chained to each other.
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The Organization (1971)
Character: Virgil Tibbs
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance.
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All the Young Men (1960)
Character: Sgt. Eddie Towler
During the Korean War, the lieutenant in charge of a Marine rifle platoon is killed in battle. Before he dies, he places the platoon's sergeant, who's black, in charge. The sergeant figures on having trouble with two men in his platoon: a private who has much more combat experience than he does, and a racist Southerner who doesn't like blacks in the first place and has no intention of taking orders from one.
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Shoot to Kill (1988)
Character: Warren Stantin
When a cunning murderer vanishes into the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest, pursuing FBI agent Warren Stantin must exchange familiar city streets for unknown wilderness trails. Completely out of his element, Stantin is forced to enlist the aid of expert tracker Jonathan Knox. It's a turbulent yet vital relationship they must maintain in order to survive... and one that becomes increasingly desperate when Knox's girlfriend Sarah becomes the killer's latest hostage!
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Paul Newman, l'intranquille (2023)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Multi-talented, Paul Newman is one of the greatest American actors of all time. With his silhouette of a Greek statue and his unreal blue eyes, he embodied the quintessential Hollywood star. But he never seemed satisfied. The son of a Jewish sporting goods retailer who despises him and a Catholic mother who adores him, driven by self-doubt and an inherited need for approval from his childhood, he has worked throughout his fifty-year career to break the image of the pretty boy. He made his first experiences in the famous Actors Studio. The breakthrough as a screen star came in 1958 with "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". From then on he preferred characters on the edge of the American dream. With archive images and film excerpts, the documentary paints a portrait of a socio-politically committed man with many facets and also pays tribute to the role of his wife Joanne Woodward.
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Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007)
Character: Self
The documentary consists of tape of Don's show (never been filmed before), interviews with Don's contemporaries, (Steve Lawrence, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.), established comedians (Billy Crystal, Rosanna Barr, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, etc.) and young comedians (Jeff Atoll, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, etc.).
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Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
Character: Steve Jackson
Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.
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In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Character: Virgil Tibbs
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
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The Long Ships (1964)
Character: Aly Mansuh
Moorish ruler El Mansuh is determined to locate a massive bell made of gold known as the "Mother of Voices." Viking explorer Rolfe also becomes intent on finding the mythical treasure, and sails with his crew from Scandinavia to Africa to track it down. Reluctantly working together, El Mansuh and Rolfe, along with their men, embark on a quest for the prized object, but only one leader will be able to claim the bell as his own — if it even exists at all.
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The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
Character: Shack Twala
Having spent 10 years in prison for nationalist activities, Shack Twala is finally ordered released by the South African Supreme Court but he finds himself almost immediately on the run after a run-in with the police. Assisted by his lawyer Rina Van Niekirk and visiting British engineer Jim Keogh, he heads for Capetown where he hopes to recover a stash of diamonds, meant to finance revolutionary activities, that he had entrusted to a dentist before his incarceration. Along the way, they are followed by Major Horn of the South African State security bureau and it becomes apparent that he has no intention of arresting them until they reach their final destination
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Nationtime (1972)
Character: Self - Narrator
A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.
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Moms Mabley (2013)
Character: Self
A feature documentary about Jackie "Moms" Mabley, an African-American stand-up comic and show-biz pioneer who emerged from the Chitlin' Circuit of African-American Vaudeville to become a mainstream star. Once billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World," Mabley pushed the boundaries of comedy by tackling topics such as gender, sex, and racism and performed up until her death in 1975. A true passion project for first-time director Whoopi Goldberg, the documentary shows Mabley's historical significance and profound influence as a performer vastly ahead of her time.
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