Josephine Baker

Acting

Josephine Baker

Born 1906-06-03 · St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, activist, and French Resistance agent. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. During her early career she was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris. Her costume, consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas, became her most iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s.

Acting credits

Siren of the Tropics poster
5.5

Marquis Sévéro, a rich, lazy Parisian, wants to divorce his wife so that he can marry his own goddaughter Denise. But Denise herself loves André Berval, an engineer employed by the marquis. Filled with jealousy, the marquis sends André to the Antilles, to prospect some land he has just acquired. He promises André that he can marry Denise if he is successful in the tropics, but he then writes to Alvarez, his manager at the site, asking him to prevent André from ever returning to France. The brutal Alvarez forms an instant hatred for André when the engineer breaks up Alvarez's attempt to rape Papitou, a beautiful native girl. Papitou becomes devoted to André, and protects him against Alvarez's schemes. But she faces a crisis herself when she learns that André plans to marry Denise.

Siren of the Tropics

1927

Bardot poster
8.3

An intimate look at the life of international icon Brigitte Bardot. With exclusive access and the full support of Brigitte Bardot and her team, we will uncover her life, with its hardships, trials and struggles, her work and her legacy.

Bardot

2025

It's Black Entertainment poster
8.7

A star-studded tribute (from the creators of That's Entertainment) to the contributions of Afro-Americans in film over the last century. Vanessa Williams traces the struggles and triumphs of the superstars of music and film. Among the many artists featured are: Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Little Richard, Also included are today's contemporary superstars: Snoop Dogg, Ice T, Quincy Jones, Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, and many, more! 80 minutes plus DVD bonus features.

It's Black Entertainment

2002

Parisian Pleasures poster
6.2

Gabrielle (Helene Hallier), an ambitious but innocent would-be young chorine, trumps a music hall publicity stunt to become the new Parisian nightclub Cinderella. But this lighter-than-champagne-bubbles story is only a pretext for LA REVUE DES REVUES's white-hot, non-stop procession of outrageously and scantily attired exotic dancers, showgirls, and acrobats.

Parisian Pleasures

1927

The French Way poster
5.8

Cabaret star Zazu intervenes when young lovers are sundered by their parents' feud.

The French Way

1940

Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening poster
7.9

How did a poor little black girl from Missouri become the Queen of Paris, before joining the French Resistance and finally creating her dream family “The Rainbow Tribe”, adopting twelve children from four corners of the world? This is the fabulous story of the first black superstar, Josephine Baker.

Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening

2018

Modeles Noirs, Regards Blancs poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Modeles Noirs, Regards Blancs

2020

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Show - Charme - Chansons

1965

Joséphine Baker en couleur poster
7.7

No synopsis available yet.

Joséphine Baker en couleur

2005

Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers) poster
NR

Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers) presents a dynamic checkerboard of moving image footage featuring African-American actors and singers from across the 20th century: from Jackie “Moms” Mabley to Eartha Kitt, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, and several others. The video focuses on their individual voices as they express heartbreaking roles, pointed lyrics, sharp jokes, and strong statements of resistance to the dominant culture. The work is a powerful, and often riotous, reflection on the roles of black women in the United States.

Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers)

2016

Intimate Portrait: Josephine Baker poster
4.7

From world-renowned performer of the Jazz Age, to WWII spy, to civil rights activist – a look into the iconic life and legacy of Josephine Baker, narrated by Arsenio Hall, including rare archive footage, and interviews with Debbie Allen, Lynn Whitfield (who portrayed Baker in The Josephine Baker Story), and two of Baker’s sons.

Intimate Portrait: Josephine Baker

1999

Princess Tam Tam poster
5.2

A French novelist passes off an African shepherdess as a princess.

Princess Tam Tam

1935

No artwork available
10.0

The story of black and mixed race people in Nazi Germany who were sterilised, experimented upon, tortured and exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps. It also explores the history of German racism and examines the treatment of Black prisoners-of-war. The film uses interviews with survivors and their families as well as archival material to document the Black German Holocaust experience.

Hitler's Forgotten Victims

1997

Moulin Rouge poster
6.5

A poor wretch, who has just been hired as a music-hall artist, in spite of himself becomes the tenant of a particular Parisian building.

Moulin Rouge

1940

The Fireman of the Folies-Bergere poster
5.7

After a lengthy period of watching the dancers at the Folies Bergères, a fireman stops in for a drink. As he becomes intoxicated, his thoughts return to the dancers, and he begins to see images of nude dancers all around him. Whether he goes into the subway, rides on a streetcar, or returns to the fire station, he continues to see the same imaginary sights.

The Fireman of the Folies-Bergere

1928

Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time poster
4.3

Performances of the greatest exotic dancers are collected here for the first time, from Little Egypt in 1893 to the great striptease headliners of the golden age of Burlesque.

Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time

2004

Zouzou poster
6.2

Aspiring stage actress Zou Zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murder.

Zouzou

1934

Variety carousel poster
6.8

A painter gives his daughter a television set for her 18th birthday. On the evening of the party, the family sits in the living room and watches a series of variety shows taken from the sets of theatrical performances and various films recited by the famous Totò,

Variety carousel

1955

Black Shadows on a Silver Screen poster
NR

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.

Black Shadows on a Silver Screen

1975

Paris Was a Woman poster
6.4

Women (many of them lesbian) artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars. They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture, and most cherished a way of life quite different than the one left behind.

Paris Was a Woman

1996

Josephine Baker, la fleur au fusil poster
NR

Josephine Baker, heedless of danger - The extraordinary destiny of Josephine Baker. From her native Missouri to Paris, the artist succeeded in making her name as the queen of music hall. But Josephine Baker was also a fighter, with the French Resistance during the Second World War, and against racism.

Josephine Baker, la fleur au fusil

2021

Paris: The Luminous Years poster
5.0

A storm of Modernism swept through the art worlds of the West in the early decades of the twentieth century, uprooting centuries of tradition. The epicenter of this storm was Paris, France. For an incandescent moment from 1905 to 1930, Paris was the magnetic center for radical innovation and experiment, and the Mecca for creative talents who would change the course of art throughout the Western world.

Paris: The Luminous Years

2010

Ten on Every Finger poster
5.3

"Ten on Every Finger" (German: "An jedem Finger zehn") is a 1954 West German musical comedy film directed by Erik Ode. The story centers on a revue dancer named Margit Rameau, played by Germaine Damar, who falls in love with composer Bert Martin, portrayed by Erich Auer, but their romance is hindered by misunderstandings and busy schedules until they reunite during a local revue performance. The film is structured as a musical revue featuring numerous guest stars performing as themselves, including Josephine Baker in her final on-screen film role, Hans Albers, and Kenneth Spencer

Ten on Every Finger

1954

Jornal Português (1938-1951) poster
NR

The newsreel series Jornal Português (1938-1951) was produced for the Secretariat of National Propaganda (SPN/SNI) by the "Portuguese Newsreel Society" (SPAC), under the technical supervision of António Lopes Ribeiro. It was conceived and employed as part of the propaganda machinery of Salazar's regime. Screened in cinema theatres prior to the main feature film, each issue of Jornal had approximately ten minutes in length and covered a variety of official government acts, national political news, major sports events and other assorted social and cultural affairs. Jornal Português is not only an indispensable document for the history of Estado Novo's propaganda, but also an unparalleled audiovisual archive of 1940s Portugal.

Jornal Português (1938-1951)

2015