Canada Lee

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Canada Lee
File:Native-Son-Canada-Lee-1941-2.jpg
Canada Lee in Native Son (April 7, 1941)
Born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata
(1907-03-03)March 3, 1907
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day
New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality American
Other names Lionel Canegata
Years active 1926–1952
Spouse(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Juanita Waller Lee
    (married 1925–42)
  • Frances Pollack Lee
    (married 1951–52)
Relatives Carl Lee (son)
Website http://www.canadalee.org/
Canada Lee
Statistics
Real name Lionel Cornelius Canegata
Rated at 140–147 lb, welterweight
Height 5'9"
Boxing record
Total fights 90
Wins 38
Wins by KO 17
Losses 36
Draws 10
No contests 1

Canada Lee (March 3, 1907 – May 9, 1952) was an American actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. After careers as a jockey, boxer and musician, he became an actor in the Federal Theatre Project and stage productions by Orson Welles. A champion of civil rights in the 1930s and 1940s, he was blacklisted and died shortly before he was scheduled to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Lee furthered the African-American tradition in theatre pioneered by such actors as Paul Robeson. Lee is the father of actor Carl Lee.

Early life and career

Canada Lee was born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata on March 3, 1907, in New York City.[1][2][3] His father, James Cornelius Lionel Canegata, was born on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, and as a youth had migrated to New York, where he married Lydia Whaley Gasden.[4] Raised by his parents in New York City, Lee was a talented musician, and by the age of 12 was a concert violinist. In his early teens, he ran away from home to become a jockey, but after growing too large to ride, he decided to try boxing.[1][5]

Lee began boxing in 1926.[6] Before one match, an announcer, stumbling over Lionel’s surname, mispronounced his name as "Canada Lee". Lee adopted the mistake as his own. At 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) and about 144 pounds (65 kg), he fought as a welterweight. His professional boxing record is listed variously as 38 wins with 15 knockouts, 32 losses with 8 knockouts, and 8 draws;[2] 44 wins with 11 knockouts, 31 losses, and three draws;[7] or 33–31–7 with 13 knockouts.[6] He fought and lost to world champions Jack Britton, Tommy Freeman, and Lou Brouillard. He boxed a ten-round draw with middleweight champion Vince Dundee in 1928.[6]

During a 1930 bout with Willie Garafola, a glancing blow to his right eye detached his retina. His sight was impaired, and he finally quit boxing in 1933.

Lee began to conduct a 15-piece orchestra at a Harlem nightclub called The Jitterbug, which he also managed. Neither the band nor the nightclub survived the Great Depression.

Despite having made an estimated $90,000 during his boxing career (roughly equivalent to $1,553,374 today), by the mid-1930s Lee was impoverished.

Theatre

Lee as Banquo in the Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth (1936)
Lee as Banquo in Act I, Scene 2, of Macbeth

Lee's acting career began by accident. While at a YMCA to apply for a job as a laborer, he stumbled upon an audition in progress and was invited to try out. He earned a supporting role in Frank H. Wilson’s 1934 production of Brother Mose, which played to a crowd of ten thousand in Central Park. Lee received favorable reviews, and settled on acting as a new career.

This brought him into contact with many of the most famous actors and directors of the late 1930s. Lee summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre (New York). Some of the other artists who summered there were Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Will Geer, Clifford Odets, Howard Da Silva and Irwin Shaw.[8][9]

On Broadway, Lee appeared in the Theatre Union's revival of Stevedore in 1934.[10] He then was cast in his first major role, that of Banquo, in the legendary Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth (1936), adapted and directed by Orson Welles.[11]

"I never would have amounted to anything in the theatre if it hadn't been for Orson Welles," Lee recalled. "The way I looked at acting, it was interesting and it was certainly better than going hungry. But I didn't have a serious approach to it until … I bumped into Orson Welles. He was putting on a Federal Theatre production of Macbeth with Negro players and, somehow, I won the part of Banquo. He rehearsed us for six solid months, but when the play finally went on before an audience, it was right — and it was a wonderful sensation, knowing it was right. Suddenly, the theatre became important to me. I had a respect for it, for what it could say. I had the ambition — I caught it from Orson Welles — to work like mad and be a convincing actor."[12]

Macbeth was sold out for ten weeks at the Lafayette Theatre.[13]:333[14]:203 After an additional two weeks on Broadway it toured the nation, including performances at the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas.[15][16]:64, 95

220px
Canada Lee as Bigger Thomas in the Mercury Theatre production of Native Son (1941)

Lee played the lead role in the 1940 revival of Theodore Ward's Big White Fog. A 1938 Federal Theatre Project production, the play was remounted by the newly created Negro Playwrights Company, founded in New York by Ward, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Theodore Browne, Richard Wright and Alain Locke.[17]:284

Lee reunited with Welles for the stage production of Richard Wright's Native Son. The 1941 production was a spectacular hit for both Welles and Lee, whom The New York Times called "the greatest Negro actor of his era and one of the finest actors in the country." Wright also applauded the performance, noting the contrast between Lee's affable personality and his intensity as Bigger Thomas. The sympathetic portrayal of a black man driven to murder by racial hatred brought much criticism however, especially from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Legion of Decency, and the ensuing pressure forced the play to close in December 1942.[18]

During World War II, Lee continued to act in plays and in films. In 1942, he played in two comedies by William Saroyan; Lee earned approving reviews despite the generally negative response to these plays. In 1943, he took a lead role in a production of the race-themed drama South Pacific, directed by Lee Strasberg, concerning a cynical African-American soldier who had racially based reservations about fighting the Japanese. The following year, he became the first African American to play Caliban, in Margaret Webster’s 1945 Broadway rendition of The Tempest. Lee had admired Shakespeare since his turn in Macbeth; indeed, at the time of his death he was preparing to play Othello on film. The following year, George Rylands cast him as Bosola in a Broadway staging of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi – one of the first occasions on which a black actor portrayed a white character (Lee wore whiteface).

After the war, Lee continued to act. In 1946, he played a principal role in On Whitman Avenue, a drama about racial prejudice directed by Margo Jones. Lee produced the play, making him the first African-American producer on Broadway. The play spoke directly to the need for interracial housing following World War II and won the praise of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote weekly columns encouraging readers to see it.[19][20]

Two years later, he played the part of an obedient slave in Let My People Go, a dramatization of the life of Denmark Vesey.

Film

File:Lifeboat (1944) 1.jpg
The cast of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944)

Lee made his screen debut in Keep Punching (1939), a film about boxing. Perhaps his most famous film role was in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), in which he played the steward of a glamorous journalist (Tallulah Bankhead). Lee insisted on changing his dialogue to round out his character, which used a semi-comical dialect. He was praised for his performance.

In 1947, he had a supporting role in Robert Rossen's Body and Soul, another boxing picture. In 1949, he took another supporting role in Lost Boundaries, a drama about passing. Lee's last film role was in Cry, the Beloved Country (1951).

Along with his varied and successful stage and screen careers, Lee became the first African-American DJ on a major radio station, hosting The Canada Lee Show, and would continue a successful and lengthy radio career as both actor and narrator. He frequently narrated on the groundbreaking series New World A-Comin′,[21] a radio show dedicated to presenting Negro history and culture to mainstream American audiences.

Civil rights activism

As an actor, Lee came into contact with many of the leading progressive figures in the country.[5] Langston Hughes, for instance, wrote two brief plays for Lee; these were submitted to the Theater Project, but their criticism of racism in America was deemed too controversial, and neither was staged. Lee spoke to schools, sponsored various humanitarian events, and began speaking directly against the existing segregation in America’s armed forces, while simultaneously acknowledging the need to win World War II. To this latter end, he appeared at numerous USO events; he won an award from the United States Recruiting Office and another from the Treasury Department for his help in selling war bonds. These sentiments would carry on throughout his life, culminating in his early firsthand account of apartheid in South Africa.

By the late 1940s, the rising tide of anti-communism had made many of his earlier contacts politically dangerous. In 1949, the trade journal Variety stated that under no circumstance was Lee to be used in American Tobacco’s televised production of a radio play he had recently starred in because he was “too controversial”.

The same year, the FBI offered to clear Lee’s name if he would publicly call Paul Robeson a communist. Lee refused and responded by saying, “All you’re trying to do is split my race.” According to newspaper columnist Walter Winchell, Lee stated that he intended to come out and “publicly blast Paul Robeson.” However, the fact that the friendship between the two actors remained until Lee's death suggests that Robeson put no faith in Winchell's claim.

At the height of the Hollywood blacklist, Lee managed to find work in 1950 as the star of a British film Cry, The Beloved Country, for which both he and Sidney Poitier were smuggled into South Africa as indentured servants in order to play their roles as African ministers. During filming, Lee had his first heart attack, and he never fully recovered his health.[1] The film’s message of universal brotherhood stands as Lee's final work towards this aim.

Being on the Hollywood blacklist prevented him from getting further work. Scheduled to appear in Italy to begin production on a filmed version of Othello, he was repeatedly notified that his passport "remained under review". Lee was reportedly to star as Bigger Thomas in the Argentine version of Native Son but was replaced in the role by Richard Wright, author of the novel, when Lee had to withdraw.

Jack Geiger

Canada Lee met and was an influence on H. Jack Geiger, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility. They met in 1940, when Geiger, a 14-year-old middle-class Jewish runaway, was backstage at a Broadway production of Native Son. Lee agreed to take Geiger in when he showed up at his door in Harlem asking for a place to stay. Geiger stayed with Lee for over a year (with the consent of Geiger's parents), and Lee took on the role of surrogate father. During his time with Lee, Geiger was introduced to people like Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, and Adam Clayton Powell. After many years of varied experiences and an on-going friendship with Lee, Geiger eventually became a journalist, then a doctor. He later went on to co-found the first community health center in the United States: Columbia Point Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts.[5]

Geiger would go on to become active in civil rights, to become the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, then Physicians for Human Rights, establishing community health centers in Mississippi and South Africa, which would eventually lead to 900 community health care centers providing primary health care for more than 14 million low-income people in the country. Geiger says he would never have moved so deeply in these worlds so quickly if not for his experiences with Canada Lee.[5]

Family life

In December 1925, Lee married Juanita Waller, by whom he had a son, the actor Carl Vincent Lee. The couple were divorced during the controversy over Native Son.

In 1934, Lee began a love affair with publisher and peace activist Caresse Crosby, despite the threat of miscegenation laws. They often had lunch in uptown New York in Harlem at the then-new restaurant "Franks", where they could maintain their secret relationship. When Lee was performing in Washington, D.C., during the 1940s, the only restaurant in the city where they could eat together was an African restaurant named the Bugazi. Crosby and Lee's intimate relationship continued into the mid-1940s.[3]

In March 1951, Lee married Frances Pollack. They remained together until he died just over a year later.

Death

File:Canada Lee Gravesite.JPG
The gravesite of Canada Lee in Woodlawn Cemetery

Lee died of a heart attack at the age of 45 on May 9, 1952, in New York City.[1][22]

Select theatre credits

Date Title Role Notes
October 1–November 1934 Stevedore Blacksnake Civic Repertory Theatre, New York[23]
May 3–May 1935 Sailor, Beware! Herb Marley Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York[24]
April 12, 1936 Macbeth Banquo Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York
A free preview draws 3,000 more people than can be seated[14]:198
April 14–June 20, 1936 Macbeth Banquo Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York[13]:333
Sold out for all ten weeks[13]:333[14]:203
July 6–18, 1936 Macbeth Banquo Adelphi Theatre, New York[13]:333[25]
July 21–25, 1936[25] Macbeth Banquo Park Theatre, Bridgeport, Connecticut[26]
July 28–August 1, 1936[25][25] Macbeth Banquo Hartford, Connecticut
August 6–?, 1936[25][27] Macbeth Banquo Exhibit Theatre, Dallas, Texas
August 13–23, 1936[28] Macbeth Banquo Amphitheater, Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas, Texas[29]
Integrated seating was a unique experience for theatergoers in Dallas[16]:64
August 25–29, 1936[30] Macbeth Banquo Keith's Theatre, Indianapolis, Indiana
September 1–13, 1936[31] Macbeth Banquo Great Northern Theater, Chicago, Illinois
September 1936 Macbeth Banquo Detroit, Michigan
September 1936 Macbeth Banquo Cleveland, Ohio
September 23–25, 1936[32] Macbeth Banquo Civic University, Syracuse, New York
October 6–17, 1936[33][34]:393 Macbeth Banquo Majestic Theatre, Brooklyn, New York
October 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938[34]:428 Bound East for Cardiff Yank Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York[35]
October 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938[34]:428 The Moon of the Caribbees Yank Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York[35]
December 2–4, 1937 Brown Sugar Henry Biltmore Theatre, New York[36]
March 2–September 24, 1938 Haiti Bertram Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York[37]
October 24–November 5, 1938[34]:392 Haiti Bertram Copley Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts[38]
January 3–May 1939 Mamba's Daughters Drayton Empire Theatre, New York[39]
March 23–April 6, 1940 Mamba's Daughters Drayton Broadway Theatre, New York[40]
October 22–December 14, 1940 Big White Fog Victor Mason Lincoln Theatre, Harlem, New York[41][42]
March 24–June 28, 1941 Native Son Bigger Thomas St. James Theatre, New York[43][44]
August 17–22, 1942 Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning Thomas Piper Belasco Theatre, New York[45]
August 17–22, 1942 Talking to You Blackstone Boulevard Belasco Theatre, New York[45]
October 23, 1942–January 2, 1943 Native Son Bigger Thomas Majestic Theatre, New York[46][47]
December 29, 1943 – January 1, 1944 South Pacific Sam Johnson Cort Theatre, New York[48]
August 30, 1944 – November 30, 1946 Anna Lucasta Danny Mansfield Theatre, New York[49]
January 25–April 21, 1945 The Tempest Caliban Alvin Theatre, New York (January 25–March 17)
Broadway Theatre, New York (March 19–April 21)[50]
May 8–September 14, 1946 On Whitman Avenue David Bennett Cort Theatre, New York[51]
October 15–November 16, 1946 The Duchess of Malfi Daniel de Bosola Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York[52]
November 3–27, 1948 Set My People Free George Hudson Theatre, New York[53]

Select film and television credits

Year Title Role Notes
1939 Keep Punching Speedy [54]
1942 Henry Browne, Farmer Narrator Oscar-nominated documentary short[55]
1944 Lifeboat Joe Spencer [56]
1945 Ask the OPA Narrator Documentary short about the Office of Price Administration[57]
1947 Body and Soul Ben Chaplin [58]
1947 The Roosevelt Story Narrator (Joe, the voice of the Depression) Documentary biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt[59]
1949 Lost Boundaries Lt. Thompson [60]
1950 The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (TV series) Unknown
Police Officer		 "The Final Bell"[61]
"Oropalo"[62]
1951 Cry, the Beloved Country Stephen Kumalo [63]

References

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Additional reading

  • Hill, Erroll. Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
  • Leiter, Samuel. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the New York Stage, 1940–1950. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • Smith, Mona Z., Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee, London: Faber and Faber 2004. ISBN 0-571-21142-9
  • Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2 volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  • Woll, Allen. Dictionary of the Black Theatre: Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Selected Harlem Theatre. New York: Greenwood Press, 1983.

External links

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ "Biographical Sketch", Canada Lee Papers.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Canada Lee at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Pinewood Lake website retrieved on 2010-09-10
  9. ↑ Images of America, Trumbull Historical Society, 1997, p. 123.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement Five, 1951–1955 (1977). C. Scribner’s Sons, p. 419.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. "Syracuse will be the last stop for the touring 'Macbeth' production … closing a 4,000 mile jaunt with a three-day run at the Civic University, opening Sept. 23."
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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