Stepin Fetchit

Little is known about Perry's background other than that he was born in Key West, Florida, to West Indian immigrants. He was the second child of Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica (although some sources indicate the Bahamas)United States Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Tampa Ward 5, Hillsborough, Florida; Roll: T624_162; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0054; FHL microfilm: 1374175. and Dora Monroe, a seamstress from Nassau, The Bahamas. Both of his parents came to the United States in the 1890s, where they married. By 1910, the family had moved north to Tampa, Florida. Another source says he was adopted when he was 11 years old and taken to live in Montgomery, Alabama.

His mother wanted him to be a dentist, so Perry was adopted by a quack dentist, for whom he blacked boots before running away at age 12 to join a carnival. He earned his living for a few years as a singer and tap dancer.

In his teens, Perry became a comic character actor. By the age of 20, Perry had become a vaudeville artist and the manager of a traveling carnival show. His stage name was a contraction of "step and fetch it". His accounts of how he adopted the name varied, but generally he claimed that it originated when he performed a vaudeville act with a partner. Perry won money betting on a racehorse named "Step and Fetch It", and his partner and he decided to adopt the names "Step" and "Fetchit" for their act. When Perry became a solo act, he combined the two names, which later became his professional name.{{cite book |last=Watkins |first=Mel |title=Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=2005 |isbn=0-375-42382-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/stepinfetchitlif00watk/page/32 32]–33 |url=https://archive.org/details/stepinfetchitlif00watk |url-access=registration }}

File:Stepin Fetchit-Chubby Johnson in Bend of the River.jpg in Bend of the River (1952)]]

Perry played comic-relief roles in a number of films, all based on his character known as the "Laziest Man in the World". In his personal life, he was highly literate and had a concurrent career writing for The Chicago Defender. He signed a five-year studio contract following his performance in the film, In Old Kentucky (1927). The film's plot included a romantic connection between Perry and actress Carolynne Snowden,{{cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/snowden-carolynne-1900-1985|title=Snowden, Carolynne (1900-1985) - The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed|website=Blackpast.org|date=December 13, 2007 |access-date=June 1, 2017}} a subplot that was a rarity for black actors appearing in a white film during this era.Ely, Melvin Patrick, The Adventures of Amos 'N' Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon, Macmillan Free Press, 1991, pp. 100–101. Perry also starred in Hearts in Dixie (1929), one of the first studio productions to boast a predominantly black cast.{{cite web|last=Hall |first=Mordaunt |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E1D7153EE33ABC4051DFB4668382639EDE |title=Hearts in Dixie (1929) |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 28, 1929 |access-date=October 14, 2011}}

Jules Bledsoe provided Perry's singing voice for his role as Joe in the 1929 version of Show Boat.{{cite web|last=Hall |first=Mordaunt |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990DEED81430E33ABC4052DFB2668382639EDE |title=Showboat (1929) |newspaper=New York Times |date=April 18, 1929 |access-date=October 14, 2011}} Fetchit did not sing "Ol' Man River", but he did sing "The Lonesome Road" in the film. In 1930, Hal Roach signed him to a film contract to appear in nine Our Gang episodes in 1930 and 1931. However, his only appearance in the series was in A Tough Winter. Perry's contract was canceled for unknown reasons after its release.

Perry was good friends with fellow comic actor Will Rogers. They appeared together in David Harum (1934), Judge Priest (1934), Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935), and The County Chairman (1935).

By the mid-1930s, Perry was the first black actor to become a millionaire. He appeared in 44 films between 1927 and 1939. In 1940, Perry temporarily stopped appearing in films, having been frustrated by his unsuccessful attempt to get equal pay and billing with his white costars. He returned in 1945, in part due to financial need, though he only appeared in eight films between 1945 and 1953. He declared bankruptcy in 1947, stating assets of $146. He returned to vaudeville; he appeared at the Anderson Free Fair in 1949 alongside Singer's Midgets.{{cite magazine|title=16 Rides, 17 Shows Listed At Anderson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RA4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22stepin+fetchit%22+billboard&pg=PT64|date=July 16, 1949|magazine=Billboard|page=65|issn=0006-2510}} He became a friend of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali in the 1960s, allegedly converting to the Nation of Islam shortly before. (Other sources have said he was a lifelong Catholic;{{Cite journal |last=Bird |first=John |date=2006 |editor-last=Watkins |editor-first=Mel |title=The Life and Times of Stepin Fetchit |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42573708 |journal=Studies in American Humor |issue=14 |pages=139–144 |jstor=42573708 |issn=0095-280X}} he was buried at Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic institution in Los Angeles.)

After 1953, Perry appeared in cameos in the made-for-television movie Cutter (1972) and the feature films Amazing Grace (1974) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976).Clark, Champ (2005). Shuffling to Ignominy: The Tragedy of Stepin Fetchit. iUniverse. pp. 124, 126, 132. {{ISBN|0-595-37125-6}}. He found himself in conflict during his career with civil rights leaders who criticized him personally for the film roles that he portrayed. In 1968, CBS aired the hour-long documentary Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, written by Andy Rooney (for which Rooney received an Emmy Award){{cite news | title = Andy Rooney | work = CBS News| date = September 21, 2005 | url = https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13495.shtml | access-date = October 28, 2008 | url-status=dead| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081018174703/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13495.shtml| archive-date= October 18, 2008 }} and narrated by Bill Cosby, which criticized the depiction of black people in American film, and especially singled out Stepin Fetchit for criticism. After the show aired, Perry unsuccessfully sued CBS and the documentary's producers for defamation of character.{{failed verification|date=May 2023}}

In late November 1963, Perry collaborated with Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. and Esther Gordy Edwards in composing "May What He Lived for Live," a song intended to honor the memory of President John F. Kennedy in the wake of his assassination. Perry was credited under the pseudonym W.A. Bisson. The song was recorded in December 1963 by Liz Lands, who in 1968 performed the work at the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.{{Cite book|last=Maraniss|first=David|title=Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2015|location=New York|pages=296–7}}

Perry suffered a stroke in 1976, ending his acting career; he then moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. He died on November 19, 1985, from pneumonia and heart failure, at the age of 83.{{cite news |date=November 20, 1985 |title=Comedian Stepin Fetchit, 83 |page=C–19 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer}} He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles following a Catholic funeral Mass.{{cite news |date=November 21, 1985 |title=Mass to Be Said Friday for Actor Stepin Fetchit |page=A30 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-21-mn-1828-story.html |access-date=May 4, 2013}}

Perry spawned imitators, such as Willie Best ("Sleep 'n Eat") and Mantan Moreland, the scared, wide-eyed manservant of Charlie Chan. Perry had actually played a manservant in the Charlie Chan series before Moreland in 1935's Charlie Chan in Egypt.{{cite news|last=Sennwald |first=Andre |title=Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 24, 1935 |access-date=October 14, 2011 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE7DC143FE23ABC4C51DFB066838E629EDE}}

Perry appeared in one 1930 Our Gang short subject, A Tough Winter, at the end of the 1929–30 season. Perry signed a contract to star with the gang in nine films for the 1930–31 season and be part of the Our Gang series, but for some unknown reason, the contract fell through, and the gang continued without Perry. Previous to Perry entering films, the Our Gang shorts had employed several black child actors, including Allen Hoskins, Jannie Hoskins, Ernest Morrison, and Eugene Jackson. In the sound Our Gang era, black actors Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas were featured. The black performers' personas in Our Gang shorts were the polar opposites of Perry's persona.{{cite web|url=http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/04/26/the-annotated-mad-men-farina-stymie-and-buckwheat|title=The Annotated MAD MEN: Farina, Stymie And Buckwheat|first=Devin|last=Faraci|date=April 26, 2014|website=Birth.Movies.Death.|access-date=June 1, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2005/12/back_in_blackface.html|title=Back in Blackface|first=Armond|last=White|date=December 5, 2005|access-date=June 1, 2017|website=Slate.com}}{{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/stepin-fetchit/|title=Stepin Fetchit - Hollywood Star Walk - Los Angeles Times|website=projects.latimes.com|access-date=June 1, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/stepin-fetchit|title=Stepin Fetchit - Hollywood Walk of Fame|website=Walkoffame.com|access-date=June 1, 2017}}

In the 2005 book Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-bxuXGSuXgC&q=Fetchit&pg=PP9|title=Stepin Fetchit: The Life & Times of Lincoln Perry|first=Mel|last=Watkins|date=July 14, 2010|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=9780307547507|access-date=June 1, 2017|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/books/titles/138360032/stepin-fetchit-the-life-and-times-of-lincoln-perry|title=Stepin Fetchit|website=Npr.org|date=November 25, 2024 }} African-American critic Mel Watkins{{cite web|url=http://www.vindy.com/news/2005/nov/20/stepin-fetchit-biographer-defends-role-of-black/|title=Vindy.com - STEPIN FETCHIT Biographer defends role of black film actor|website=Vindy.com|access-date=June 1, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://news.colgate.edu/2010/12/mel-watkins-62-explores-evolut.html|title=Mel Watkins '62 explores progression of black humor - Colgate University News|date=December 14, 2010|website=colgate.edu|access-date=June 1, 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/books/review/caricature-acting.html|title=Caricature Acting|first=Dana|last=Stevens|date=November 27, 2005|website=The New York Times}} argued that the character of Stepin Fetchit was not truly lazy or simple-minded,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/books/how-a-black-entertainers-shuffle-actually-blazed-a-trail.html|title=How a Black Entertainer's Shuffle Actually Blazed a Trail|first=John|last=Strausbaugh|date=December 7, 2005|website=The New York Times}} but instead a prankster who deliberately tricked his white employers so that they would do the work instead of him. This technique, which developed during American slavery, was referred to as "putting on old massa", and it was a kind of con art with which black audiences of the time would have been familiar.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/12/behind-the-mask|title=Behind the Mask|magazine=The New Yorker|date=December 5, 2005 |access-date=June 1, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/retracing-black-actors-path-from-vaudeville-to-vilification/|title=Retracing black actor's path from vaudeville to vilification|date=December 5, 2005|website=seattletimes.com|access-date=June 1, 2017}}

Fetchit has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1976, despite popular aversion to his character, the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP awarded Perry a special NAACP Image Award. Two years later, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

In 1929, Perry married Dorothy Stevenson. She gave birth to their son, Jemajo, on September 12, 1930. In 1931, Dorothy filed for divorce, stating that Perry had broken her nose, jaw, and arm with "his fists and a broomstick."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8MACMLdgjwC&q=donald+lambright+turnpike+killing&pg=PA113|title=Shuffling to Ignominy: The Tragedy of Stepin Fetchit|last=Clark|first=Champ|date=January 1, 2005|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-37125-9 |language=en}} A few weeks after their divorce was granted, Dorothy told a reporter she hoped someone would "just beat the devil out of him," as he had done to her. When Dorothy contracted tuberculosis in 1933, Perry moved her to Arizona for treatment. She died in September 1934.

Perry reportedly married Winifred Johnson in 1937, but no record of their union has been found.{{Cite book|title=Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry|last=Watkins|first=Mel|publisher=Pantheon|year=2005|isbn=978-0-375-42382-6|url=https://archive.org/details/stepinfetchitlif00watk}} On May 21, 1938, Winifred gave birth to a son, Donald Martin Perry.Clark, Champ (2005). Shuffling to Ignominy: The Tragedy of Stepin Fetchit. iUniverse. p. 60. {{ISBN|0-595-37125-6}}. Their relationship ended soon after Donald's birth. According to Winifred's brother, Stretch Johnson, their father intervened after Perry knocked Winifred down the stairs and broke her nose. In 1941, Perry was arrested after Winifred filed a suit for child support. When he was released from jail, he told reporters, "Winnie and I were never married. It was all a publicity stunt. I want you and everybody else to know that that is not my baby. Winnie knows the baby isn't mine but she's trying to be smart." Winifred admitted that they were not legally married, but she insisted Perry was her son's father. The court ruled in her favor and ordered Perry to pay $12 a week ({{Inflation|index=US|value=12|start_year=1941|r=0|fmt=eq}}) for the child's support. Donald later took his stepfather's surname, Lambright.{{efn|On April 5, 1969, Donald Lambright was traveling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he went on a spree shooting. Reportedly, he injured sixteen and killed four, including his wife, with an M1 carbine and a .30-caliber Marlin 336 carbine, before turning one of the rifles on himself.[https://www.nytimes.com/1969/04/06/archives/angry-young-man.html Angry Young Man], The New York Times (April 6, 1969).[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SEQNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5626,789291&dq= Pike killer felt violence only racial answer], Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 7, 1969).[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=S0QNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3196,1465564&dq= Pike killer not on drugs], Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 10, 1969). The 1969 Pennsylvania Turnpike shootings were officially ruled a murder-suicide, but the account of the circumstances upon which the ruling was based was questioned by Lambright's daughter and discussed at length in her 2005 self-published book about Stepin Fetchit. In a Los Angeles Times interview, Lincoln Perry stated his belief that his son was set up. Lambright's involvement with the Black Power movement at the peak of the COINTELPRO program was believed to be related to his death. Perry never provided child support for Lambright, and they only met two years before his son's violent death.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-20-mn-7848-story.html|title=Stepin Fetchit, Noted Black Movie Comic of '30s, Dies|last=SEILER|first=MICHAEL|date=November 20, 1985|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=March 8, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}}}

Perry married Bernice Sims on October 15, 1951. Although they separated by the mid-1950s, they remained married for the rest of their lives. Bernice died on January 9, 1985.

For at least the great majority of his life, Perry was a devout Catholic, but he allegedly became a member of the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s, following the footsteps of his close friends Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, even appearing in the 1977 movie Muhammad Ali, the Greatest.{{Cite news|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/perry-lincoln-theodore-monroe-andrew-stepin-fetchit-1902-1985/|title=LINCOLN THEODORE MONROE ANDREW ("STEPIN FETCHIT") PERRY (1902-1985)|date=February 15, 2007|author=John W. Ravage}} (Other sources say he was a lifelong Catholic; he was buried at Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic institution in Los Angeles.)

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• The Mysterious Stranger (1925)
• In Old Kentucky (1927) – Highpockets
• The Devil's Skipper (1928) – Slave's Husband
• Nameless Men (1928)
• The Tragedy of Youth (1928) – Porter
• The Kid's Clever (1929) – Negro Man
• The Ghost Talks (1929) – Christopher Lee
• Hearts in Dixie (1929) – Gummy
• Show Boat (1929) – Joe
• Thru Different Eyes (1929) – Janitor
• Innocents of Paris (1929) – Bit Role (uncredited)
• Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929) – Swifty
• Salute (1929) – Smoke Screen
• Big Time (1929) – Eli
• Cameo Kirby (1930) – Croup
• The Big Fight (1930) – Spot
• Swing High (1930) – Sam
• La Fuerza del Querer (1930) – Spot
• A Tough Winter (1930, Short) – Stepin
• The Prodigal (1931) – Hokey
• Wild Horse (1931) – Stepin
• The Galloping Ghost (1931) – Baxter College Locker Room Attendant
• Neck and Neck (1931) – The Hustler
• Carolina (1934) – Scipio
• David Harum (1934) – Sylvester Swifty
• Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) – Stepin Fetchit
• The World Moves On (1934) – Dixie
• Judge Priest (1934){{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/JudgePriest1934|title=Judge Priest (1934)|access-date=June 1, 2017|website=Archive.org}} – Jeff Poindexter
• Marie Galante (1934) – 'Pacific Gardens' Waiter (uncredited)
• Bachelor of Arts (1934) – Bulga
• The Littlest Rebel (1935)
• Helldorado (1935) – Ulysses
• The County Chairman (1935) – Sass
• One More Spring (1935) – Zoo Attendant
• Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) – Snowshoes
• Hot Tip (1935) – Cook
• Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) – Jonah
• The Virginia Judge (1935) – Spasm Johnson
• 36 Hours to Kill (1936) – Flash
• Dimples (1936) – Cicero
• On the Avenue (1937) – Herman
• Love Is News (1937) – Penrod
• Fifty Roads to Town (1937) – Percy
• Super-Sleuth (1937) – (uncredited)
• His Exciting Night (1938) – Casper, the Baker Butler
• Zenobia (1939) – Zero
• Open the Door Richard (1945)
• Big Timers (1945, Short) – Porter / Specialty Act
• Swingtime Jamboree (1946)
• I Ain't Gonna Open That Door (1947, Short) – Richard
• Miracle in Harlem (1948){{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/MiracleinHarlem|title=Miracle in Harlem|last=Jack Goldberg|date=June 1, 2017|access-date=June 1, 2017|website=Archive.org}} – 'Swifty', the Handyman
• Harlem Follies of 1949 (1950)
• Bend of the River (1952) – Adam
• The Sun Shines Bright (1953) – Jeff Poindexter
• Inquiring Nuns (1968, interviewee)
• Cutter (1972, TV movie) – Shoeshine Man
• Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1974)
• Amazing Grace (1974, cameo appearance) – Cousin Lincoln
• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975, archival footage)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976, cameo appearance) – Dancing Butler (final film role)

{{div col end}}

{{Portal|Biography|Film|United States}}

• Amos 'n' Andy
• Jar Jar Binks
• Blackface
• Buckwheat, a character played by Billie Thomas in the 1930s U.S. short film series Our Gang
• Dudley Dickerson
• Billy Kersands
• "Old Aunt Jemima"
• Pickaninny
• Fred Toones
• Uncle Tom

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last= Katz |first= Ephraim |title= The Film Encyclopedia |publisher= Thomas Y. Crowell, New York |year= 1979 |isbn= 0-690-01204-7 }}
• {{cite book |last= Watkins |first= Mel |title= Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry |publisher= Pantheon Books |year= 2005 |isbn= 0-375-42382-6 |url= https://archive.org/details/stepinfetchitlif00watk }}
• {{cite book |last= Clark |first= Champ |title= Shuffling to Ignominy: The Tragedy of Stepin Fetchit |publisher= iUniverse |year= 2005 |isbn= 0-595-37125-6 }}

• [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/61326%7C142541/Stepin-Fetchit/ Stepin Fetchit] at TCM Movie Database
• {{IBDB name|40420}}
• {{IMDb name|275297}}
• [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/8631/stepin-fetchit Stepin Fetchit] at Virtual History
• {{discogs artist|Stepin Fetchit}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fetchit, Stepin}}

Category:1902 births

Category:1985 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American male actors

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:African-American Catholics

Category:American Roman Catholics

Category:American actors of Jamaican descent

Category:American male film actors

Category:American people of Bahamian descent

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Los Angeles)

Category:Catholics from Florida

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California

Category:Former Nation of Islam members

Category:Male actors from Florida

Category:People from Key West, Florida

Category:Vee-Jay Records artists