Stepin Fetchit Biography

Fast Facts

• Received a Special Image Award from the Hollywood NAACP in 1976 and was inducted into the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame in 1978
• Made his screen acting debut in the film "The Mysterious Stranger" in 1925
• Started out as a performer in plantation shows, minstrel groups, and carnivals at the age of 14
• Quote: "Just because Charlie Chaplin played a tramp doesn't make tramps out of all Englishmen, and because Dean Martin drinks, that doesn't make drunks out of all Italians․ I was only playing a character, and that character did a lot of good․"
• Quote: "I defied the law of white supremacy․․․I became the first Negro entertainer to become a millionaire․ All the things that Cosby and Poitier have done wouldn't be possible if I hadn't broken that law․ I set up the thrones for them to come and sit on․"
• Best known for his role as Adam in "Bend of the River" and as Jeff Poindexter in "The Sun Shines Bright․"
• Played unsophisticated, subservient characters that many viewed as an insult to African Americans, but that he defended as his method of subversion