Spencer Bell (actor)

{{Infobox person

| name = Spencer Bell

| image = Blue Blood lobby card.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Lobby card for Blue Blood (1925)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1887|09|25|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1935|08|18|1887|09|25|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Sawtelle Military Cemetery

| nationality = American

| years_active = 1919–1934

| occupation = Actor

}}

Spencer Bell (September 25, 1887 – August 18, 1935) was an American stage and film actor, best known for playing opposite Larry Semon in many of his silent comedy shorts from the late 1910s to 1928. Bell was one of the first African American comedic actors of the silent film era, and was the first to be signed to film contract.{{cite web|title=Notable Kentucky African Americans Database|url=http://nkaa.uky.edu/record.php?note_id=2396|website=University of Kentucky Libraries|publisher=nkaa.uky.edu|access-date=June 30, 2017|archive-date=December 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207182918/http://nkaa.uky.edu/record.php?note_id=2396|url-status=dead}} Over the course of his fifteen-year film career, Bell appeared in more than seventy comedy shorts.

Career

Bell was born in Lexington, Kentucky. Prior to his Hollywood film career, he worked as a chauffeur and performed in vaudeville and minstrel shows. He

enlisted in the United States Army and served in World War I. Bell made his film debut in Larry Semon's 1919 silent comedy short, Passing the Buck. As was typical for African American actors of the era, Bell was typecast in stereotypical roles. His characters were often depicted as bumbling, lazy buffoons who were prone to comedic accidents.

During the 1930s, Bell regularly appeared in the Mickey McGuire film series starring Mickey Rooney, and briefly ran an acting troupe in Harlem. Bell's final film appearance was in the 1934 comedy short Mickey's Medicine Man.

Death

On August 18, 1935, Bell died at his home in Los Angeles, California of complications from abdominal surgery he underwent in July 1935.{{cite news|title=Movie Actor Dies After Operation|work=Pittsburgh Courier|date=August 31, 1935|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=6}} He is buried at Sawtelle Military Cemetery (now known as Los Angeles National Cemetery).{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Scott|last2=Mank|first2=Gregory William|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|date=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-786-47992-4|page=54|edition=3}}

Selected filmography

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
1927 \|Oh, What a Man! \|Waiter \|
1928 \|The Midnight Taxi \|Rastus \|
1929 \|The Rodeo \|Magnolia's Husband \|
1931 \|Be Big! \|Porter \|Uncredited
1931 \|Smart Money \|Suntan \|Uncredited
1932 \|Heavens! My Husband! \|Porter \|Uncredited
1933 \|Blue of the Night \|Porter \|Uncredited

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

1927

|Oh, What a Man!

|Waiter

1928

|The Midnight Taxi

|Rastus

1929