Lorenzo Tucker

Vocation

Notable

Traits

African-American stage and screen actor, known as the "Black Valentino," who played the romantic, handsome lead in the early black films of Oscar Micheaux. He became a movie star to black America and was often mentioned in the leading black newspapers. From 1926 to 1946, Tucker appeared in 18 of Micheaux's films, including When Men Betray (1928); Wages of Sin (1929); Easy Street (1930); Harlem Big Show, Veiled Aristocrats (1932); Ten Minutes To Live (1932); Harlem After Midnight (1934); Temptation (1935); and Underworld (1937). Tucker was also a successful stage actor, appearing on Broadway in The Constant Sinner, Ol' Man Satan, and Humming Sam. His most controversial role came in The Constant Sinner in which he portrayed a pimp, Money Johnson, and in which Mae West was his prostitute, Babe Gordon. During World War II, Tucker was a tail gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He later became an autopsy technician for the New York City medical examiner, where he worked on the bodies of Malcolm X and Nina Mae McKinney. Tucker died of lung cancer on 19 September 1986 at age 79 at his home in Hollywood, California. Link to Wikipedia biography