James Edwards (actor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Edwards
Born	March 6, 1918(1918-03-06) Muncie, Indiana
Died	January 4, 1970 (aged 51) San Diego, California
Other name(s)	Graduated Anderson High in Anderson, Indiana in 1936
Occupation	Actor

James Edwards (March 6, 1918 in Muncie, Indiana - January 4, 1970 in San Diego, California) was an African American actor who primarily worked in film.

Edwards was a pioneering actor who was among Hollywood's first to crush the Stepin Fetchit stereotype of black males as shiftless illiterates. Although in some pictures Edwards would portray subservient characters (e.g. General George Patton's valet in Patton (1970)), he delivered true dignity in his performances. He is especially remembered for his superlative lead performance as Private Peter Moss in the 1949 film Home of the Brave. Edwards portrayed a soldier experiencing racial prejudice while serving in the South Pacific during World War II. Based on Arthur Laurents‘ Broadway play about anti-Semitism in the Army, it was made on a relative shoestring by producer Stanley Kramer, director Mark Robson and his production team under great secrecy.

Edwards was the first black actor to play the role of a fighter pilot in a film, the 1956 film Battle Hymn. This was not done again until 30 years later in Iron Eagle with Lou Gossett Jr.

In 1954, when Dorothy Dandridge read for the title role in Carmen Jones, Edwards read the part of Joe, though he was not considered for the role. The role later went to Harry Belafonte.

Edwards would go on to appear in numerous films, working with some of the best directors in the medium at the time, including Sam Fuller in one of the first films about the Korean War, The Steel Helmet (1951), Fred Zinnemann in Carson McCullers’ Member of the Wedding (1952), Stanley Kubrick’s breakthrough indie The Killing (1956), Anthony Mann’s examination of Men in War (1957), Lewis Milestone’s effective meditation on the futility of war in Pork Chop Hill (1959), John Frankenheimer’s Cold War thriller in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and his final appearance as the attentive, insightful valet to George C. Scott’s Patton (1970).

James Edwards was a pioneer, whose choices made possible the careers of the black actors who followed, including a Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman who took the path that he helped to clear of stereotypes.^{[citation needed]}

Contemporary actor and friend Woody Strode, whose background as a great athlete had not entirely prepared him for the demands of acting, appreciated the generous help that Edwards also offered him on the set. When writing his memoirs, after a career which included appearances in classic films such as Sergeant Rutledge, Spartacus and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Strode wrote that "Home of the Brave was the highlight of Jimmy Edwards’ movie career. There wasn’t much for him after that, and it broke his heart. He drank heavily, couldn’t control it, and died of a massive heart attack."^{[citation needed]}

James Edwards brought his customary intelligence and alertness to this last role despite the fact that he played a valet in 1970's Patton, but he would never live to see the film’s success, after succumbing to a massive heart attack in San Diego, California at the age of 54, (though some sources would say 52).

He was laid to rest in Evergreen Memorial Park, in Hobart Lake County, in his native Indiana.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links

• James Edwards (actor) at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
NAME	Edwards, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	1918-03-06
PLACE OF BIRTH	Muncie, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH	1970-01-04
PLACE OF DEATH	San Diego, California