In the early 1950s, when television was still in diapers, the appearance of a Black face on screen was a moment of celebration and the telephone lines would be jumping with the news. Those momentous occasions came to mind recently while watching one of the channels that features old movies. Suddenly there was the face of Ernest Anderson in the Warner Bros. film “In This Our Life” (1942). For his performance, he received a National Board of Review Award for Best Actor that year.
Neither Anderson nor the film is part of our recent memory, but it was one of those surprising moments to see his remarkable portrayal of a Black man in a non-servant role, while still being a victim of racism. Like so many films of that time, he is falsely accused of manslaughter by a white woman (Bette Davis), who in real life was responsible for Anderson getting the role. But that gets us ahead of our story.
Anderson was born on August 25, 1915, in Lynn, Massachusetts, and raised in Washington, D.C. where he attended the famous Dunbar High School. Not much is known of his formative years, but he later earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. Little information is available about his relocation to Hollywood and being employed by Warner Brothers. We do know that in his first acting role as Parry or Perry Clay, the accused Black man, his performance earned him a prestigious award, possibly instrumental in his winning more film parts.
A few years after a sterling film debut, Anderson served in the Army but soon returned to Warner Bros. to resume his film career with credited roles in a succession of films, including “The Peanut Man” (1947); “The Well” (1951); “The Band Wagon” (1953); “North by Northwest” (1959); and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962), an opportunity to be in a picture once more with Bette Davis. It wasn’t much of a part for Anderson, who had a cameo as an ice cream vendor. And like his role in “The Band Wagon,” you better pay close attention or you will miss him as the train porter.
The next decade or so, Anderson’s parts were no better, though at least he was credited in “Tick, Tick, Tick” (1970) as Homer; First Doctor in “Coma” (1972); Uncle Stan in “Last of the Good Guys” (1978); and Dr. Mortoff in “The Return” (1980). None of these roles came close to his debut award-winning performance in “In This Our Time.” Film authority Donald Bogle has this to say about the film, writing that Davis, “…is a spoiled rich girl, who accidentally kills a child during a wild car ride, then drives away from the scene. The hit-and-run accident is blamed on a young Black man, played by Ernest Anderson, the son of Davis’s family maid, played by Hattie McDaniel. Bright, dignified, and composed, the young man studies law at night in order, naturally, to improve his lot in life. Eventually, he’s proven innocent of the crime. His story is merely a subplot in the fast-paced melodrama, but director [John] Huston makes it compelling nonetheless.” A review in Variety praised Anderson’s acting, noting he “stands out in brief appearance as the wrongly accused colored lad.” No scene in the film was more provocative and curious — particularly for those who knew of the relationship between Davis and Anderson — than when he was behind bars and heard Davis accuse him of a crime he did not commit.
Anderson was still active in films and television in the early seventies. He died in DeLand, Florida on March 5, 2011. He was 95.