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Clarence Muse

Clarence Muse

Actor · 1889 – 1979 · Baltimore, Maryland, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first Negro to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years appearing in more than 150 movies. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an international law degree in 1911. He was acting in New York by the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players. Muse moved to Chicago for a while, and then moved to Hollywood and performed in Hearts in Dixie (1929), the first all-black movie. For the next fifty years, he worked regularly in minor and major roles. While with the Lafayette Players, Muse worked under the management of producer Robert Levy on productions that helped black actors to gain prominence and respect. In regards to the Lafayette Theatre's staging of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Muse said the play was relevant to black actors and audiences "because, in a way, it was every black man's story. Black men too have been split creatures inhabiting one body.". Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also wrote songs, plays, and sketches. In 1943, he became the first African American Broadway director with Run Little Chillun. Muse was also the co-writer of several notable songs. In 1931, with Leon René and Otis René, Muse wrote "When It's Sleepy Time Down South", also known as "Sleepy Time Down South". The song was sung by Nina Mae McKinney in the movie Safe in Hell (1931), and later became a signature song of Louis Armstrong. He was the major star in Broken Earth (1936), which related the story of a black sharecropper whose son miraculously recovers from fever through the father's fervent prayer. Shot on a farm in the South with nonprofessional actors (except for Muse), the film's early scenes focused in a highly realistic manner on the incredible hardship of black farmers, with plowing scenes. In 1938, Muse co-starred with boxer Joe Louis in Spirit of Youth, the fictional story of a champion boxer which featured an all black cast. Muse and Langston Hughes wrote the script for Way Down South (1939). Muse performed in Broken Strings (1940), as a concert violinist who opposes the desire of his son to play "swing". From 1955-56, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist (a part he was under consideration for in the original Warner Brothers film), and in 1959, he played Peter, the Honey Man, in Porgy and Bess. He appeared on Disney's TV miniseries The Swamp Fox. Other film credits include Buck and the Preacher (1972), The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) and as Gazenga's Assistant, "Snapper" in Car Wash (1976). His last acting role was in The Black Stallion (1979).

Movies24

  • Movie7.5

    Shadow of a Doubt

    1943 · 1.2K votes

  • Movie8.1

    Double Indemnity

    1944 · 2.1K votes

  • Movie7.6

    Scarlet Street

    1945 · 455 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Black Swan

    1942 · 98 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Buck and the Preacher

    1972 · 70 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Car Wash

    1976 · 133 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Black Stallion

    1979 · 341 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Heaven Can Wait

    1943 · 252 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Unconquered

    1947 · 67 votes

  • Movie7.3

    The Talk of the Town

    1942 · 133 votes

  • Movie5.5
  • Movie6.3

    Flying Down to Rio

    1933 · 75 votes

  • Movie6.8
  • Movie6.0

    White Zombie

    1932 · 287 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Watch on the Rhine

    1943 · 56 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Las Vegas Story

    1952 · 38 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Thin Man Goes Home

    1944 · 111 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Flame of New Orleans

    1941 · 26 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Belle Starr

    1941 · 17 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Tales of Manhattan

    1942 · 39 votes

  • Movie6.7

    My Favorite Brunette

    1947 · 62 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Silver River

    1948 · 32 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Porgy and Bess

    1959 · 27 votes

  • Movie6.5

    If I Had a Million

    1932 · 51 votes

Series4

  • TV6.8

    Four Star Playhouse

    1952 · 11 votes

  • TV6.0
  • TV6.7

    Lux Video Theatre

    1950 · 7 votes

  • TV8.5

    Casablanca

    1955 · 2 votes