Juano Hernandez
Juano Hernández | |
---|---|
Born | Juano G. Hernández July 19, 1896 |
Died | July 17, 1970 San Juan, Puerto Rico | (aged 73)
Resting place | Buxeda Memorial Park, Puerto Rico |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1927–1970 |
Spouse(s) | Haydee Bello Paoli (m. 1930; died 1956) Carlota Heroina Mera
(m. 1961) |
Children | 2 |
Juano G. Hernández (July 19, 1896
Early years
Hernández was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Puerto Rican parents, Jose Guillermo and Clara de Ponce. With no formal education, he worked as a sailor and settled in Rio de Janeiro.[3] He was hired by a circus and became an entertainer, making his first appearance as an acrobat in Rio de Janeiro in 1922. He later lived in the Caribbean and made his living as a professional boxer, fighting under the name Kid Curley.[4][5]
Vaudeville and the stage
In
Film career
Hernández appeared in 26 films throughout his career. He portrayed a revolutionary soldier in the silent film
In 1949, he acted in his first mainstream film, based on
In the 1950 western Stars In My Crown, directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Joel McCrea, Hernández plays a freed slave who refuses to sell his land and faces an angry lynch mob.[8] He is also memorable in Young Man With a Horn as Art Hazzard, a jazz trumpet player who mentors fellow musician Kirk Douglas.
He was singled out for praise for his performance in the 1950 film The Breaking Point with John Garfield. The New York Times called his performance "quietly magnificent."[9]
He also received favorable notices for his performances in
More than 50 years after its initial release, in 2001, film historian Donald Bogle wrote that Intruder in the Dust broke new ground in the cinematic portrayal of blacks, and Hernández's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."[10]
Television appearances
Over the years, Hernández made guest appearances on a dozen U.S. network television programs, appearing three times in 1960 and 1961 on the ABC series, Adventures in Paradise, starring Gardner McKay. In 1959, he starred in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents production of the Ambrose Bierce short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
Other television shows in which Hernandez appeared were
Later years
Hernández returned to Puerto Rico late in his life. Together with Julio Torregrosa he wrote a script for a movie about the life of Puerto Rico's first boxing champion, Sixto Escobar. He was unable to get funding in Puerto Rico and therefore he translated the script into English. He sent it to several companies in Hollywood and had it almost sold at the time of his death.[3] In the last two years of his life he appeared in three films, The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) with David Niven, The Reivers (1969) with Steve McQueen, and They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) with Sidney Poitier.
He died in San Juan on July 17, 1970, of a
Filmography
- The Life of General Villa (1914) ... Revolutionary Soldier (uncredited)
- The Girl from Chicago (1932) .... Gomez
- Harlem Is Heaven (1932) .... Cop (uncredited)
- Lying Lips (1939) .... Rev. Bryson
- The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940) ... John Arthur
- Intruder in the Dust(1949) .... Lucas Beauchamp
- Young Man with a Horn (1950) .... Art Hazzard
- Stars in My Crown (1950) .... Uncle Famous Prill
- The Breaking Point (1950) .... Wesley Park
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955) .... Eddie Yeager
- Trial(1955) .... Judge Theodore Motley
- Ransom! (1956) .... Jesse Chapman aka Uncle Jesse
- Something of Value (1957) .... Njogu, Oath Giver
- The Mark of the Hawk (1958) .... Amugu
- St. Louis Blues (1958) .... Rev. Charles Handy
- Machete (1958) .... Bernardo
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959) (Season 5 Episode 13: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge") .... Josh
- Sergeant Rutledge (1960) .... Sgt. Matthew Luke Skidmore
- The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) .... Kalanumu
- Two Loves (1961) .... Chief Rauhuia
- Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed (1961) (TV) .... Standing Bear
- Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) .... Bugs
- The Pawnbroker (1964) .... Mr. Smith
- The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) .... Ali Shar
- The Reivers (1969) .... Uncle Possum
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) .... Mealie Williamson (final film role)
See also
- List of Puerto Ricans
- African immigration to Puerto Rico
- List of Puerto Ricans of African descent
References
- ^ "Jet". Johnson Publishing Company. November 23, 1961.
- ^ "Juan Hernandez, Actor, Dies at 74". The New York Times. July 19, 1970.
- ^ a b c "Juano Hernández – Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular | San Juan, Puerto Rico".
- ^ a b c d Associated Press (July 20, 1970). "Juan Hernandez, Actor, Dies at 74". The New York Times.
- ^ a b "Juano Hernandez". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2011. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
- ^ "Early Black Cinema", True West Magazine, August 2005, p. 22
- ^ "Faulkner's Home, Family and Heritage Were Genesis of Yoknapatawpha County". The New York Times. July 7, 1962. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Stars In My Crown at AllMovie
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (October 7, 1950). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Breaking Point,' Adapted From Hemingway Story, Starring John Garfield, at Strand". The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ISBN 0-8264-1267-X.
External links
- Juano Hernandez at IMDb
- Juano Hernandez at the Internet Broadway Database
- Boxing record for Juano Hernandez from BoxRec (registration required)
- Juano Hernandez at Find a Grave
- Juano Hernandez in Hollywood Cinema at Centro Voices