Daniel Elam(1915-1990)

Daniel Elam's career spanned the 1950s through the 1980s and ran the full gamut of stereotypes that Hollywood had for Black Americans at the time. But, like a true professional, he always did what was asked of him no matter what role he was asked to play. Like most Black American actors of the era, a majority of Elam's work in the 1950s involved African native sequences in shows like Ramar of the Jungle, Soldiers of Fortune, and movies like the Disembodied. He persevered where a lot of people quit to find regular jobs as porters or other menial occupations of the day. With the onset of the civil rights movements of the 1960s, Elam's career took a new course. Gone were the days of the tribal scenes and he was now cast as a caterer or a diplomat or a waiter in various films and TV shows. By the 1970s Elam was now able to play a wider range of roles, including mainstream laborers, detectives, or even cowboys if the situation called for it. He worked steadily through the early 1980s until he retired. He passed away in 1990.