Jack Carter (actor)

Jack Carter
Jack Carter in April 1936, photographed by Carl Van Vechten
Occupation	Actor

Jack Carter (c. 1902 – November 9, 1967) was an African American actor. He is known for creating the role of Crown in the original Broadway production of Porgy (1927), and for starring in Orson Welles's stage productions including Macbeth (1936) and Doctor Faustus (1937). He appeared in a few motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s.

Jack Carter created the role of Crown in the original stage production of Porgy. He is perhaps best known for having starred in the Federal Theatre Project's 1936 New York production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth that came to be known as the Voodoo Macbeth. Orson Welles adapted and directed the play, moved its setting from Scotland to a fictional Caribbean island, recruited an entirely African American cast, and earned the nickname for his production from the Haitian vodou that fulfilled the rôle of Scottish witchcraft.

Welles later cast Carter as Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus (1937), a Federal Theatre Project 891 production in which Welles played Faust.

Jack Carter as Crown in Porgy (1927–30)

Jack Carter in Macbeth (1936)

Jack Carter and Edna Thomas in Macbeth

Jack Carter in Macbeth