BLACK FILMS

 

 

 

 

This webside is about black actors and producers. The long way to the success was very hard because they weren’t accepted first. Now they are, but still whites dominate as actors as well as producers.

 

 

 

Black Actors

 

While Black actors are now more numerous in film, it is an open question as to how well they are being represented. Compare, for example, how Blacks and Whites are portrayed in the top movies of 1996.

 

In the following, we portray some of the best-earning black actors:

 

 

Will Smith

 

 

Birth name

Willard Christopher Smith Jr.

 

Date of birth (location)

25 September 1968,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

 

Nickname

Fresh Prince

 

Height

6' 2"

 

Films with the “Fresh Prince”:

*   1995:    Bad Boys

*   1996:    Independence Day

*   1997:    Men In Black

*   1998:    Enemy of the State

*   1999:    Wild Wild West

*   2000:    The Legend of Bagger Vance

*   2001:    Ali

*   2002:    Men In Black 2

Salary:

Men in Black

$5,000,000

Enemy of the State

$14,000,000

Ali

$20,000,000

Men in Black 2

$20,000,000

Bad Boys 2 (2003)

$20,000,000

 

 

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

 

Date of birth (location)

28 December 1954,

Mount Vernon, New York

 

Height

6' 0"

 

Awards

1989:Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory (1989)

2001:Oscar for best male lead -in the film Training Day.

 

Films with Denzel Washington:

*   1993:  Philadelphia

*   1993:  The Pelican Brief

*   1995:  Crimson Tide

*   1996:  Courage Under Fire

*   1998:  The Siege

*   2000:  Hurricane

*   2001:  Training Day

*   2003:  Out of Time

 

 

Salary:

Courage Under Fire

$10,000,000

The Siege

$12,000,000

The Hurricane

$10,000,000

Training Day 

$12,000,000

Out of Time

$20,000,000

 

 

Halle Berry

 

 

Nickname

Hannah Little

 

Date of birth (location)

14 August 1968

Cleveland, Ohio

 

Height

5' 7"

 

Awards

2002: Oscar and a Silver Berlin Bear as best female lead for Monster’s Ball (2001).

 

Other films with Halle Berry:

*   1996:    Executive Decision

*   1995:    Solomon & Sheba (TV)

*   1997:    B*A*P*S

*   1998:    Bulworth

*   1998:    The Wedding (TV)

*   2001:    Swordfish

*   2002:    Die Another Day

 

 

Salary:

Executive Decision (1996)

$1,000,000

Swordfish (2001)

$2,500,000

Monster's Ball (2001)

$100,000 ??

Die Another Day (2002)

$4,000,000

 

Whoopi Goldberg

 

 

Birth name

Caryn Elaine Johnson

 

Date of birth (location)

13 November1955,

New York City

 

Height

5' 5"

 

Awards

1991: Oscar as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in the film Ghost (1990)

20 July 2001: Star on the Walk of Fame (at 6841 Hollywood Blvd.)

 

Films with Whoopi:

*   1985:    The Color Purple

*   1986:    Jumpin' Jack Flash

*   1990:    Ghost.

*   1992:    Sister Act
*   1993:    Made in America

*   1993:    Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

*   1994:    Corrina, Corrina

*   1995:    Boys on the Side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Producers 

 

For most of the last three decades, African-American filmmakers have waged a struggle to become part of the Hollywood system. The economic and political realities of that battle are relevant to African-American filmmakers today who are debating whether Hollywood remains the best, or indeed the exclusive, means to reach a mass audience. The breakthrough period for black cinema came in the late 1960s, when the industry had severe economic problems stemming from a mature television industry and the continuing complications of the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree in which a U.S. government suit forced the major Hollywood studios to divest their interests in both film production and exhibition. Social pressures arose from liberal concern within the film industry to respond in some visible manner to the massive civil rights movement, then at its height. The most obvious result of these factors was that in 1969 Gordon Parks became the first black director of a Hollywood film, The Learning Tree. The following year, Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baad-asssss Song opened the 'blaxploitation' era.

In the following you will get to know the two most famous black producers and their work:

 

 

Spike Lee

Headshot

 

Birth Name

Shelton Jackson Lee

 

Date of birth (location)

20 May 1957,

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

 

Height

5' 5"

 

 

Films from Spike Lee:

*   1983:  Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads

*   1986:  She’s Gotta Have It

*   1988:  School Daze

*   1989:  Do The Right Thing

*   1990:  Mo’ Better Blues

*   1991:  Jungle Fever

*   1992:  Malcom X

*   1994:  Crooklyn / Drop Squad

*   1995:  Clockers / New Jersey Drive / Tales From The Hood

*   2002:  The 25th Hour

 

 

 

Oprah Winfrey

 

 

Birth name:

Oprah Gail Winfrey

 

Date of birth (location):

29 January 1954,

Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA

 

Films from Oprah Winfrey:

*   1986:  The Oprah Winfrey Show

*   1989:  Woman Of Brewster Place

*   1990:  Overexposed

*   1992:  Nine

*   1997:  Before Women Had Wings

*   1998:  The Wedding / Beloved / David And Lisa

*   1999:  Tuesdays With Morrie

*   2001:  Amy & Isabelle

 

 

 

(Source: http://us.imdb.com - July 2002)

 

 

Since film has always been seen as a part of the visual arts, here is a good place to put a link to the “Visual arts” group, where you can gather more information about painters and sculptors!

 

 

 

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