Race Movies Profile:

Spencer Williams

Spencer Williams began his career in the movie industry as an actor--usually in bit parts--in Hollywood in the late 1920s. He also contributed to scripts for the Al Christie studio, including the first black sound film, The Melancholy Dame (1929), in which he also played the part of Webster Dill. During the early years of the Great Depression, however, Williams virtually disappeared from the movie industry until he appeared in a string of Herb Jeffries westerns including Harlem on the Prairie (1937), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), The Bronze Buckaroo (1939), and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). In 1941, he directed his first film for Sack Amusement Enterprises, The Blood of Jesus, and would continue making race movies through the late 1940s. After the race movie era came to an end, Williams began his most recognizable acting role, as Andy on the television series (1951-1953) based on radio's The Amos 'n Andy Show.

Clip from The Blood of Jesus

Filmography (as director):

The Blood of Jesus (1941)
Marching On! (1943)
Of One Blood (1944)
Go Down, Death! (1944)
The Girl in Room 20 (1946)
Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946)
Juke Joint (1947)
Beale Street Mama (1947)
Jivin' in Be-Bop (1948)

Source:

Cripps, Thomas. "The Films of Spencer Williams" Black American Literature Forum. v. 12, n. 4, Winter 1978.