Mantan Moreland (born Manton Moreland, September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films, and is best known to today's audiences as Birmingham Brown, the chauffeur in the Charlie Chan movies of the 1940s. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actor in several films.
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Early years
He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, to Frank, an old-time Dixieland bandleader, and Marcella. Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent; some sources say he ran away to join a minstrel show in 1910, at age eight, but his daughter told Moreland's biographer she doubts this date is correct. She and other sources agree it is more likely he left home when he was fourteen.
Career
The earliest surviving notice for Manton Moreland dates from 1923, when the 21-year-old actor was part of the Shuffle Along roadshow company, touring America in an all-black-cast revue. Moreland's specialty was then dancing: "Manton Moreland is a dancing phenomenon." In 1925 he was in Jimmie Cooper's Revue, with a company of both white and black entertainers. "Jimmie is not content with staging a 'white and black' show, but departs a bit further from the beaten path by staging a 'ramble' every Friday night at midnight. In this midnight offering Jimmie promises the regular performance and some 'extras'." During the mid-1920s Moreland was listed variously in newspaper reviews as "Manton" or "Mantan".
The musical revue Blackbirds of 1928 reached Broadway and ran for 518 performances. Drama critic Brooks Atkinson commented on "Manton Moreland's nervous card-concealing art in the poker game." However, when listing the cast members in the same review, either Atkinson or the typographer spelled the actor's name as "Mantan Moreland." Moreland himself continued to be billed as Manton Moreland through 1940, but he adopted "Mantan" as his permanent professional name in 1941.
By the late 1920s, Moreland had made his way through vaudeville, working with various shows and revues, performing on Broadway and touring Europe. Following the death of Aubrey Lyles, one half of African American vaudeville act Miller and Lyles, in 1932, Flournoy Miller asked Moreland to team up with him for personal appearances. With Moreland, Miller performed comedy routines he had done with Lyles. The pair performed together in the one-reel short film That's the Spirit (1933) as a pair of night watchmen and for stage productions by Miller, Dixie Goes High Hat (1938) and Hollywood Revue (1939). Moreland appeared in low-budget "race movies" aimed at African American audiences, including One Dark Night (1939) with Bette Treadville, Lucky Ghost (1941), Mr. Washington Goes to Town (1941) and Mantan Runs for Mayor (1946), again with Miller.
As his comedic talents became recognized, Moreland appeared in larger productions. At the height of his career, Moreland received steady work from major film studios, as well as from independent producers who starred Moreland in low-budget, all-African American-cast comedies. Monogram Pictures signed Moreland to appear opposite Frankie Darro in the studio's popular action pictures. Moreland, with his bulging eyes and cackling laugh, quickly became a favorite supporting player in Hollywood movies. In 1940's Drums of the Desert, Moreland played a more serious role as the sergeant in charge of a squad of Senegalese Tirailleurs in French colonial Algeria alongside Ralph Byrd, known for appearing in Republic Pictures' Dick Tracy serials.
Later career and death
Moreland's last featured role was in the darkly humorous horror film Spider Baby (1968, filmed in 1964), which was patterned after Universal's thrillers of the 1940s. After suffering a stroke in the early 1960s, Moreland took on a few minor comedic roles, working with Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley and Carl Reiner. He later partnered with Roosevelt Livingood to form the comedic team of Mantan and Livingood; they recorded a number of albums for Laff Records.
Moreland died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973 in Hollywood, aged 71, and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
Recognition
In 2004, Moreland was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame.
Selected filmography
Television
1957 Hallmark Hall of Fame (1 episode)
1969 Julia (1 episode)
1969 Love, American Style (1 episode)
1970 The Bill Cosby Show (1 episode)
1970 Adam-12 (1 episode)
Recordings
That Ain't My Finger (Laff Records)
Elsie's Sportin' House (Laff Records)
Tribute to the Man (Laff Records)
Cultural references
Robert B. Parker makes allusions to Moreland in A Catskill Eagle and Hush Money, both being part of his long-running series of Spenser novels.
Bamboozled, a 2000 film directed by Spike Lee, centers around a fictional television show called Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show featuring stereotypes of minstrel theater and starring a tap dancing character, played by Savion Glover, named Mantan. Clips of Moreland are featured during a montage at the end of the film.
"B-Boys Makin with the Freak Freak", a song by Beastie Boys featured on their 1994 album Ill Communication, samples a line from Mantan's comedy album That Ain't My Finger, referencing a bit about a party and mashed potatoes.
