Born in 1881, actor and filmmaker Noble Johnson appeared in his first movie in 1915. His career would span five decades, include 144 films, and incredibly, he seldom played an African-American character (although he did play many jungle savages—including the tribal leader in King Kong, and the character Friday in 1922’s The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe). Johnson was a contemporary and friend of legendary actor Lon Chaney, Sr., and like Chaney, Johnson was a man of a thousand faces. During his career, Johnson played mostly Native Americans, an occasional Chinese, a Russian, and various monsters (he was helped by his 6’2” frame). Along with his brother George, Johnson founded The Lincoln Motion Picture Company in 1916, a film production company started to create movies with positive images of Blacks. Their first production was The Realization of the Negro’s Ambition (1916), which the Johnson brothers made in direct response to D.W. Griffith’s racist Birth of a Nation. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company soon folded in 1921, but Johnson enjoyed a long and prolific career, retired from film in 1950, and passed away in 1978 at the age of 96.
To learn more about filmmakers like Noble and George Johnson, and much more, check out my new book Black Film: A History of Black Representation and Participation in the Movies will be released by Ten Speed Press on March 24, 2026. You can pre-order the book here.
