
Spencer Williams
Acting
Biography
Spencer Williams was an African American actor and filmmaker. He was best known for playing Andy in the Amos 'n Andy television show and for directing the 1941 race film The Blood of Jesus. Williams was a pioneer African-American film producer and director.
Known For

"Bourbon Street Beat" is a private detective series produced by Warner Brothers Television which aired on the ABC network from October 5, 1959, to July 4, 1960. It featured Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which they worked. The show is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and revolves around the lives of Rex Randolph (Long) and Cal Calhoun (Duggan), who run a detective agency called Randolph and Calhoun — Special Services. The agency is based in the Absinthe House, a French Quarter nightclub on Bourbon Street.
Bourbon Street Beat

A sitcom set in Manhattan's historic black community of Harlem.
Amos 'n' Andy

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen

A newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl's father.
Son of Ingagi

After losing their parents in a flood at a young age, two brothers grow up to become a police officer and a lawyer, working with a local newspaper owner to help rid the city of bootlegging gangsters.
Of One Blood

A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He infiltrates the gang to catch the men who framed him.
Two-Gun Man from Harlem

Johnny Fraser leaves his mother in their small home town and sets out for the big city. He obtains a job with a large firm of architects. Steve Carson, a fellow employee, is constantly flaunting the money he has won at the race track. Johnny also bets the races, but loses heavily and takes some of the firm's money to cover his losses.
Bad Boy

Bob Blake and his sidekick and four singing cowboys arrive at the Jackson ranch where Bob learns from Betty Jackson that her brother, Joe, is missing. Bob investigates and learns that there is gold on the Jackson ranch, and the neighboring rancher has kidnapped Joe in order to get his land.
The Bronze Buckaroo

A wandering cowboy and his sidekick try to resolve a murder.
Harlem Rides the Range

Bad News Johnson, a con artist from Memphis, Tennessee, arrives in Dallas, Texas, accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing Johnson is an acting teacher from Hollywood. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew.
Juke Joint

Razz accidentally shoots his wife Martha when his hunting rifle drops on the floor and discharges. The church congregation gathers at Martha’s bedside to pray for her recovery, and during this period an angel arrives to take Martha’s spirit from her body, but she is tempted by the slick Judas Green, who is an agent for Satan.
The Blood of Jesus

Daisy Mae Walker is an aspiring singer from a small town in Texas, who comes to a Big City to pursue a show business career. A kindly cab driver and a troupe of down-and-out musicians staying at her hotel provide her advice and support; but she falls prey to a sleazy nightclub owner who promises her stardom and makes her his "kept woman". NB: There is no "The" in the title of this film.
Girl in Room 20

A cowboy helps a pretty young woman find lost gold. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Harlem on the Prairie

The owner of a juke joint arranges to frame an innocent preacher with a scandalous photograph, but his scheme backfires when his own adoptive mother interferes.
Go Down Death

A Harlem nightclub entertainer arrives on the Caribbean island of "Rinidad" to perform as the headliner in a revue at the Paradise Hotel. She quickly attracts the attention of several men.
Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.
"Willie Dime," a big, bad taxi driver, is very jealous of "Miss Eva" and it burns him up to see any fool Jelly-bean "carrying on flirtatious flirtations with her." He gets madder and "badder" as the story gets "hummier" and funnier, while smooth, suave Florian Slappey gets mixed up in all kinds of complications.
The Lady Fare
The history of the television version of "Amos and Andy" and the public outcry to cancel it.
Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy

A nightclub owner's wife, jealous of his attentions to his star singer, schemes to get her fired.
Melancholy Dame

Privacy Robson is a downtrodden husband who takes advice from his friend Florian Slappey. He eventually gets the upper hand after starting divorce proceedings, pretending to have a new girlfriend and refusing to eat anything she cooks him.
The Framing of the Shrew

An uncle discusses the life of Martin de Porres with his niece. de Porres was a late sixteenth-century Peruvian who was elevated to sainthood in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.