Rare vintage signature in blue ballpoint pen on a 3x5-inch white card, acquired in-person in the 1970s.  In good condition, with a pencil notation along the bottom edge and ink notations on the verso.  After playing waiters, porters, cabbies, ministers, and hut-dwelling natives in films like Jungle Queen (1945), White Pongo (1945), Mighty Joe Young (1949), Lord of the Jungle (1955), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), Monster from Green Hell (1957), and Imitation of Life (1959), character actor Joel Fluellen began dismantling such stereotyped Black roles in Hollywood films, with psychologically rich and complex portrayals, as seen in Friendly Persuasion (1956), Porgy and Bess (1959), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), The Great White Hope (1970), and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974).  Dogged by illness, he committed suicide by shotgun at the age of 82.

• Tweet