Robeson, Paul

(1898-1976)

   Princeton, New Jersey-born Paul Bustill Robeson graduated from Rutgers with four varsity letters, then earned his law degree at Columbia University while performing on the side. After singing in the chorus of the all-black musical Shuffle Along (1921), he appeared in Ridgely Torrence's Simon the Cyrenian. He acted in England and on Broadway in Taboo (1922) and sang at the Cotton Club, but encountered a paucity of roles available for African Americans.

   Robeson rose to prominence in Eugene O'Neill's controversial drama, All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924), after which he acted in the Provincetown Players revival of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones in 1925 (a role he recreated in an early Hollywood "talkie" motion picture in 1931). He also appeared in the short-lived Jim Tully and Frank Dazey drama Black Boy (1926) before scoring a major hit as Joe in Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s London production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's* Show Boat in 1928. He played Joe again in the 1932 Broadway revival and in a classic 1936 screen version, making Joe's song, "Ol' Man River" his trademark. Later, as an outspoken civil rights activist, Robeson refashioned the song's lyrics into an anthem of protest. He also earned success as a concert artist.

   Robeson played Othello in three productions: in London opposite Peggy Ashcroft, in the longest-running Shakespeare play on Broadway (1943), and at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1959. Robeson's leftist politics hampered his career after World War II, but he inspired generations of African American actors and activists, leading Philip Hayes Dean* to create a one-man drama Paul Robeson* (1978), in which James Earl Jones* recreated highlights of Robeson's extraordinary life and career.