Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee.Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee Canada Lee, born Lionel Cornelius Canegata, (March 3, 1907– May 9, 1952) was an American actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. A champion of civil rights in the 1930s and '40s, he died shortly before he was scheduled to appear before the House Un-American by Mona Z. Smith Faber and Faber Faber and Faber, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. , Inc., August 2004 $26.00, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-571-21142-9 Why was one of the greatest African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. actors of his day relegated to little more than a footnote in Hollywood and black history in the years following his death? Biographer Mona Z. Smith, a former investigative reporter for The Miami Herald and an award-winning playwright, adeptly uncovers the answers. Intrigued by the absence of information on an actor by the name of Canada Lee, Smith set out to document this gifted Harlem Renaissance-era artist's life and work. Canada Lee, born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata in 1907, was redlisted at a time when his Broadway--and Hollywood--career was just taking off. He had found fame and for tune on Broadway as the conflicted Bigger in Orson Welles's well-received 1941 stage production of Native Son. Afterward, Lee had parlayed his success, as he'd done all of his life, into broader and bigger opportunities, including a role in the 1943 Hitchcock movie Lifeboat. Before breaking into acting, Lee had found reasonable success as a musician, jockey, boxer, bandleader and restaurateur res·tau·ra·teur also res·tau·ran·teur n. The manager or owner of a restaurant. [French, from restaurer, to restore; see restaurant. ; but acting would be his final calling, if not his death wish. Celebrity gave him a voice, and he used it to light for the rights of his people, which gradually drew the attention of government watchdogs. Lee's political activism in opposition to Jim Crow Jim Crow Negro stereotype popularized by 19th-century minstrel shows. [Am. Hist.: Van Doren, 138] See : Bigotry and other injustices is credited with ultimately cementing his placement on the McCarthy--era redlist, which eventually choked the life out of his career and his spirit. Smith, having been given access to Lee's personal files by his widow, mores a forgotten thespian from near obscurity to front and center on the American stage. Regina Cash-Clurk |
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