Herb Jeffries
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Herbert "Herb" Jeffries (b. September 24, 1911, Detroit, Michigan) is a multi-racial American jazz singer and actor.
A jazz musician of Ethiopian-French Canadian and Italian-Irish descent, Jeffries is noted for his singing cowboy roles in several all-black Western films in which he sang his own western compositions. Jeffries got the financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, Jeffries sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character "Bob Blake".
Through his series of low-budget westerns, he soon became known as the "Bronze Buckaroo" by fans who flocked to his films that in the days of American racial segregation played only in theaters catering to African Americans audiences. Jeffries remained a virtual unknown with white audiences until interest in his career was revived in the 1980s.
In 1995, at age eighty-three, Herbert Jeffries recorded a Nashville album of songs on the Warner Western label titled The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again).
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Herb Jeffries has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6672 Hollywood Blvd.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Jeffries was married five times, including once to burlesque dancer Tempest Storm.
[edit] Partial filmography
- Harlem On The Prairie (1936)
- Two Gun Men from Harlem (1937)
- Harlem Rides The Range (1937)
- The Bronze Buckaroo (1938)
