Walter Long (actor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Long
Born	5 March 1879(1879-03-05) Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	4 July 1952 (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1910 - 1950

Walter Long (5 March 1879–4 July 1952) was an American character actor in films from the 1910s. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He appeared in many D.W. Griffith films, notably The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he appeared as Gus, a Negro, in blackface make-up, and Intolerance (1916). But he is now best remembered for his roles in several Laurel and Hardy films in the 1930s as a comic villain. While his on-screen persona was crude and thuggish, in his private life he was well-dressed, intelligent, and personable, the complete antithesis of the characters he portrayed.

In 1915 Long wrote a black-face minstrel play, "Dat Famous Chicken Debate," in which representatives of the "University of Africa" and "Bookertea College" carry on a mangled language debate over whether it should be considered a crime for a black person to steal a chicken. The debate, a thinly disguised parody of one going on between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, ends up with a warning that blacks who don't respect the white man's laws risk being lynched.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] External links

Walter Long at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
NAME	Long, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	5 March 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nashua, New Hampshire United States
DATE OF DEATH	4 July 1952
PLACE OF DEATH	Los Angeles, California United States