Actor. The first African-American member of the Actors' Equity Association (1913) and a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America (1937), he was the son of free parents, Pennsylvania entrepreneur and abolitionist, William J. Whipper, and writer, Frances Rollin Whipper. Intent on becoming a lawyer, Whipper graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1895 and was admitted to the State Bar of South Carolina Bar. Shortly thereafter, however, he left the legal profession to pursue a career as an actor. By the turn of the century, he had made his first Broadway appearance in Georgia Minstrels and went on to appear in such classic Broadway productions as Stevedore, Of Mice and Men and Porgy. Although primarily a stage actor, Whipper made his film debut as a bit player in Oscar Micheaux's silent race films, Symbol of the Unconquered (1920) and Within Our Gates (1920). He would go on to appear in nearly two dozen films, including Of Mice and Men (1939) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), becoming one of the best known African-American actors of his generation. Leigh Whipper retired from the screen and stage in 1972 and settled in Harlem, New York, where he died in 1975 at the age of 98.
Actor. The first African-American member of the Actors' Equity Association (1913) and a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America (1937), he was the son of free parents, Pennsylvania entrepreneur and abolitionist, William J. Whipper, and writer, Frances Rollin Whipper. Intent on becoming a lawyer, Whipper graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1895 and was admitted to the State Bar of South Carolina Bar. Shortly thereafter, however, he left the legal profession to pursue a career as an actor. By the turn of the century, he had made his first Broadway appearance in Georgia Minstrels and went on to appear in such classic Broadway productions as Stevedore, Of Mice and Men and Porgy. Although primarily a stage actor, Whipper made his film debut as a bit player in Oscar Micheaux's silent race films, Symbol of the Unconquered (1920) and Within Our Gates (1920). He would go on to appear in nearly two dozen films, including Of Mice and Men (1939) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), becoming one of the best known African-American actors of his generation. Leigh Whipper retired from the screen and stage in 1972 and settled in Harlem, New York, where he died in 1975 at the age of 98.
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