Career
He was the first African-American to join the Actors" Equity Association, and one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild of America. He is best known for his role as Crooks in the film of Of Mice and Men, a role he reprised on Broadway. Educated at Howard University Law University, he left in 1895 and never practiced as a lawyer
Without any dramatic training, he made his first Broadway appearance in Georgia Minstrels.
His first film role was in the 1920 silent film The Symbol of the Unconquered.