Robert Adams (actor)
| Robert Adams | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1906 Georgetown, British Guiana |
| Died | 1965 (aged 58–59) Georgetown, Guyana |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1935-1960 |
Robert Adams (1906–1965) was a British Guyanese actor of stage and screen. He was the founder and director of the Negro Repertory Arts Theatre, one of the first professional black theatre companies in Britain, and became Britain's first black television actor when he appear in Theatre Parade: Scenes From Hassan on BBC TV in 1937. He was also the first Black actor to play a Shakespearian role on television (the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice), in 1947.
(Wilfred) Robert Adams, the son of a boat builder, was born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). In 1920, we won a scholarship to Jamaica's Mico Teachers' College, from where he graduated with honours. He worked as a teacher in British Guiana, while producing and acting in amateur stage productions. He went to England in the 1920s to try to make it as a professional actor. In London, he worked as a labourer and as a wrestler, known as "The Black Eagle", becoming heavyweight champion of the British Empire. In 1931, he was a founding member of Harold Moody's League of Coloured Peoples.
Adams began appearing as a film extra in 1934, and had roles in films including Midshipman Easy (1935), Song of Freedom in 1936 - together with Paul Robeson - and King Solomon's Mines (1937). He also featured in Old Bones of the River (1938), worked as Robeson's stunt double in 1940's The Proud Valley, was in a 1941 Colonial Film Unit production entitled An African in London, and played the role of a Nubian slave in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). The following year, when Adams starred in Men of Two Worlds, it was hailed by critics as a "ground-breaking film".
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