Rex Ingram

Acting

Rex Ingram

Born 1895-10-20 · Cairo, Illinois, USA

Rex Ingram (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1969) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Ingram graduated from the Northwestern University medical school in 1919 and was the first African-American man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from there. He went to Hollywood as a young man where he was literally discovered on a street corner by the casting director for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), starring Elmo Lincoln. He made his (uncredited) screen debut in that film and had many other small roles, usually as a generic black native, such as in the Tarzan films. With the arrival of sound, his presence and powerful voice became an asset and he went on to memorable roles in The Green Pastures (1936), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the 1939 MGM version), The Thief of Bagdad (1940—perhaps his best-known film appearance—as the genie), The Talk of the Town (1942), and Sahara (1943). From 1929, he also appeared on stage, making his debut on Broadway. He appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, with his final role coming in Kwamina in 1961. He was in the original cast of Haiti (1938), Cabin in the Sky (1940), and St. Louis Woman (1946). He is one of the few actors to have played both God (in The Green Pastures) and the Devil (in Cabin in the Sky). In 1966 he played Tee-Tot in the movie Your Cheatin' Heart. Ingram was arrested for violating the Mann Act in 1948. Pleading guilty to the charge of transporting a teenage girl to New York for immoral purposes, he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. He served just ten months of his sentence, but the incident had a serious effect on his career for the next six years. In 1962, he became the first African-American actor to be hired for a contract role on a soap opera, when he appeared on The Brighter Day. He had other work in television in the 1950s and 1960s. Rex Ingram died of a heart attack at the age of 73. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]

Acting credits

The Ten Commandments poster
7.8

Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.

The Ten Commandments

1956

The Thief of Bagdad poster
7.1

When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.

The Thief of Bagdad

1940

The Talk of the Town poster
7.3

Hilarity ensues when a falsely accused fugitive from justice hides at the house of his childhood friend, which she has recently rented to a high-principled law teacher.

The Talk of the Town

1942

The Ten Commandments poster
6.5

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.

The Ten Commandments

1923

Hurry Sundown poster
6.4

A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.

Hurry Sundown

1967

Elmer Gantry poster
7.3

A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based on Sinclair Lewis' novel of the same name.

Elmer Gantry

1960

Congo Crossing poster
5.5

Congotanga, West Africa, has no extradition laws; the government is controlled by foreign gangsters, headed by Carl Rittner. The latest plane from Europe carries lovely Louise Whitman, fleeing a French murder charge, and Mannering, who pays resident hit man O'Connell to kill her. Through a chain of circumstances Louise, O'Connell, and heroic surveyor David Carr end up alone in the jungle on Carr's mission to determine the true border of Congotanga... in which Rittner is keenly interested.

Congo Crossing

1956

Sahara poster
7.2

In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an isolated well with a limited supply of water from a German Afrika Korps battalion during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.

Sahara

1943

The King of Kings poster
6.4

The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.

The King of Kings

1927

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn poster
6.7

Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1939

Journey to Shiloh poster
5.4

At the beginning of the Civil War, seven friends embark on a cross-country journey in order to join the Confederate army.

Journey to Shiloh

1968

The Green Pastures poster
6.3

God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black Americans.

The Green Pastures

1936

A Thousand and One Nights poster
6.1

On the run after being found sweet-talking the Sultan's daughter, Aladdin comes upon a lamp which, when rubbed, summons up Babs the genie. He uses it to return as a visiting prince asking for the princess's hand. Unfortunately for him, the sultan's wicked twin brother has secretly usurped the throne, someone else is after the lamp for his own ends, and Babs has taken a shine to Aladdin herself and is bent on wrecking his endeavours.

A Thousand and One Nights

1945

Cabin in the Sky poster
6.5

When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia, while an angel known as the General and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr., fight for his soul.

Cabin in the Sky

1943

Moonrise poster
6.3

Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s girlfriend, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.

Moonrise

1948

No artwork available
7.0

Documentary about the technical achievements of the 1940 film classic The Thief of Bagdad.

Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad

2008

Adventure poster
6.4

A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.

Adventure

1945

Desire in the Dust poster
4.4

Lonnie Wilson returns to small southern hometown after spending six years on the chain-gang for killing Colonel Ben Marquand's son in an automobile accident. He revives his love affair with Melinda Marquand........

Desire in the Dust

1960

God's Little Acre poster
6.2

In the 1950s, a poor Georgia cotton farmer and his sons search for the gold presumably buried on the farm by their grandfather but problems related to poverty, marital infidelity, unemployment and booze threaten to destroy their family.

God's Little Acre

1958

Tarzan of the Apes poster
5.3

A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.

Tarzan of the Apes

1918

The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli

1973

Escort West poster
6.2

Seeking a new place to call home, former Confederate soldier Ben Lassiter (Victor Mature) and his daughter meet Beth (Elaine Stewart), whose fiancé is a Union soldier. Lassiter falls for Beth, and when Indians attack, they head to a cavalry camp where Lassiter must battle the Indians as well as Beth's fiancé.

Escort West

1959

Hoola Boola poster
8.3

Jim Dandy lands on a tropical island and falls in love with a beautiful maiden. A Puppetoon animated short film.

Hoola Boola

1941

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle poster
5.3

Hunters trespass into Sukulu country, where animals are sacred, posing as photographers.

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle

1955