Stepin Fetchit

Stepin Fetchit remains one of the most controversial movie actors in American history. While he was undoubtedly one of the most talented physical comedians ever to do his shtick on the Big Screen, achieving the rare status of being a character actor/supporting player who actually achieved superstar status in the 1930s (becoming a millionaire to boot), his characterization as a lazy, slow-witted, jive-talkin' "coon" offended African-Americans at the time he was a major attraction in motion pictures (primarily the 1930s) and still offends African-Americans in the 21st century, more than 50 years after he had faded from the screen. Yet some African-Americans claim him as the first black superstar, and thus a trailblazer for others of his "race." The controversy over Stepin Fetchit remains alive to this day, with two biographies published about him in 2005. Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, who was born May 30, 1902, as confirmed by the 1910 census