Lorenzo Tucker in his prime was billed and known as "The Black Valentino," named after Rudolph Valentino, because of his tall, dark, dashing good looks, muscular built, secret charm and coolness. Tucker was one of Black Cinema's most popular leading actors, appearing in close to 20 films. He started acting at Temple University in Philadelphia ...
I could have passed for white and left Harlem behind, but I didn't. Maybe that was a mistake as far as my career was concerned, but I didn't do it. It would have been easier that way, passing for white and keeping my past a secret, like others did, but I chose to be considered as colored. You see, I still want to prove that the Negro race is not all black-skinned; we're all shades of the rainbow.
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I was never called [the Black Valentino] because we never used the word 'black' like that in those days. [Filmmaker Oscar] Micheaux only called me 'the Colored Valentino,' nothing else. In fact, if you really want to know, I was even lighter than Valentino himself.
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As a child I would go around reciting poems and famous passages, things like that. Things I was taught by rote, or conversation I had overheard and just remembered. I wanted, I guess, to be seen.
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[on Oscar Micheaux] Why, he was so impressive and so charming that he could talk the shirt off your back.
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Fact
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Was married four times and was survived by wife Paulina Segura. He had no children.
2
Was cast in Mae West's Broadway play "The Constant Sinner" in 1931. According to Laura Wagner in her article on Tucker for Films of the Golden Age, Issue #79, Winter 2014-2015, Tucker was originally set to star opposite West as gangster Money Johnson but she was met with strong resistance by audiences and theatre owners and was forced to replace him. Tucker took a minor role in the show instead. West always cast black actors in her shows and, as such, Tucker referred to her as one of "the greatest ladies of the theater.".
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In the late 1950s he worked as a security guard in Los Angeles and in 1962 he became an autopsy technician for the New York City medical examiner..
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Was a tail gunner in the Army Air Forces during WWII. He was then transferred to the infantry and saw combat in France and Germany.
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In 1974 he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
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Was cast in a bit part as an Italian in the film Saturday Night Fever (1977) but his scene was cut.
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He could have been able to pass for white on film and his agent felt that performing in the films of Oscar Micheaux was damaging the progress of his career, but he refused to hide his ethnicity for the sake of his career. As a result, he never made it in mainstream Hollywood films.
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Born in Philadelphia, he spent a large portion of his early life living on his grandfather's Virginia farm.
Performed with the Lafayette Players on the Harlem stage. He later formed the Negro Drama Players and Universal Theater in the 1950s.
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At 19, he dropped out of Temple University and worked as a hotel waiter in order to pursue his career. He eventually found work performing an adagio dance with Rae Hewitt and performed on the black vaudeville circuit. As such, he became known for a time as "The Colored Valentino". He was also known as the "John Gilbert of the Colored Race" and the "Sepia William Powell".
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