Had a deep and mellifluous voice like that of his son James...with whom he appeared onstage in "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl", "Infidel Caesar" (both 1962) and "Of Mice and Men" (1967, portraying Crooks to James's Lennie).
Dropped out of school in the third grade to work as a sharecropper.
Also worked on the railroad until the Depression caused him to lose his
job.
Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Black
Theatre Festival; also received an Oscar Micheaux Award and was
inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Was blacklisted in the early 1950s and called before the House
Un-American Activities Committee because of his involvement in the
leftist movement of the late 1930s.
Ran in the New York City Marathon several times, including in 1996!
(source: New York Amsterdam News).