Actors - Juano Hernandez

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	Actors - Juano Hernandez

Juano Hernandez (July 19, 1901-July 17, 1970 born in San Juan, Puerto Rico) was one of the first Black Hispanics to become a major star in the Negro Film Industry of the United States.

Born Huano G. Hernandez in the capital of Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican fisherman and a Brazilian mother. His father died soon after Hermamdez's birth and his mother moved back to Brazil. His mother died when he was still a child and he had to spend most of his youth in the sreets of Rio de Janeiro singing for food.

Hernandez did not receive any formal education however, he taught himself the basics of reading and writing. He was hired by a circus and became a performer. Hernandez enjoyed performing in front of the public and decided that he wanted a career in the field of entertainment. Hernandez moved to the United States to accomplish his goals.

In New York City, he worked in vaudeville and minstrel shows. During his spare time he perfected his diction by studying Shakespeare thus, enabling himself to work in the radio. He co-starred in radio's first all-black soap opera We Love and Learn. He also participated in the following soap operas: Mandrake the Magician (opposite Raymond Edward Johnson and Jessica Tandy), The Shadow, Tennessee, Jed and Against the Storm. He became a household name after his participation in The Cavalcade of America, a series which promoted American history and inventiveness. His participation in the chorus of the 1927 Broadway musical production Showboat opened the "doors" to his career as a film actor.

In the early years of the movie industry, movie companies were owned and operated by whites. Blacks were often cast in stereotyped roles such as maids, butlers or uneducated slaves. At times the role of a black person was played by a white man with black make-up. In 1912 a group of black businessmen, lead by C.E. Hawk, realized that the black communities across the nation were in need of a black film industry that would produce movies about black themes with an all-black cast. The year 1913, witnessed the founding of the Foster Photoplay Company in Chicago, which was the first black-owned motion picture production and distributing entity. In 1916, the lincoln Motion picture Company was established in Los Angeles. These movies were to be distributed by blacks and exhibited in black owned theaters in black neighborhoods. Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) was a pioneering black filmmaker who in 1918, established his own film company, Micheaux Film and Book Company, in Chicago. He produced and directed over 30 films. In 1932, Micheaux cast Hernandez in his first role, that of "Gomez" a drug lord, in the film titled The Girl from Chicago. Hernandez participated in 23 films throughout his career. In 1949, he acted in his first mainstream film, Intruders in the Dust, where he played the role of "Lucas Beauchamp", a poor southern sharecropper unjustly accused of murder. The film earned him a Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year".

Films in which he has participated:

The Girl from Chicago (1932) .... Gomez
Harlem Is Heaven (1932) (uncredited) .... Cop
Lying Lips (1939) .... Rev. Bryson
Intruder in the Dust (1949) .... Lucas Beauchamp
Young Man with a Horn
(1950) .... Art Hazzard
The Breaking Point
(1950) .... Wesley Park
Stars in My Crown (1950) .... Uncle Famous Prill
Trial (1955) .... Judge Theodore Motley
Kiss Me Deadly
(1955) .... Eddie Yeager
Ransom!
(1956) .... Jesse Chapman aka Uncle Jesse
Something of Value (1957) .... Njogu, Oath Giver
Machete (1958) .... Bernardo
St. Louis Blues (1958) .... Rev. Charles Handy
The Mark of the Hawk (1958) .... Amugu
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) .... Sgt. Matthew Luke Skimore
Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed (1961) (TV) .... Standing Bear
Two Loves (1961) .... Rauhuia
The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) .... Kalanumu
Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) .... Bugs
The Pawnbroker (1964) .... Mr. Smith
The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) .... Ali Shar
The Reivers (1969) .... Uncle Possum
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
(1970) .... Mealie Williamson

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