People, Locations, Episodes

Bert Williams, Actor, Comedian, and Composer born

Bert Williams

*On this date, Bert Williams was born in 1876.  He was a Black comedian who portrayed the slow-witted, shuffling Black characters that were then a standard role in vaudeville.

He was born in New Providence, Bahamas. Williams went to California with his family when he was a child. Later he worked in the mining and lumber camps of the West.

In 1895, he and George W. Walker became a comedy team, one of the most successful comedy teams of their era. Within a year, they were appearing in New York City, where their song "Good Morning, Carrie" became famous. In 1903 the partnership graduated to full-scale musical comedy.  The all-Black show "In Dahomey" was a Broadway success. The cast played a command performance at Buckingham Palace in London the next year. Other successes followed, notably "Abyssinia" (1906), "Bandanna Land" (1908), and "Mr. Lode of Koal" (1909).

Walker died in 1909, and Williams became a regular comic in the shows of Florenz Ziegfeld, starring in the Follies from 1910 through 1919 and writing much of his material. Of his many musical compositions, "Nobody" (1905), with its wry, fatalistic lyrics, is probably the best example of his work.

Bert Williams died on March 4, 1922, in New York City.

To become an Actor or Actress.