This is NOT a joke. Stuart Whitman the whitest thing on earth played a black man in Black Like Me. He seriously thought this looked real?

I am going to withhold my answer because I will get pb'd commenting on how intelligent this comment was.

Maybe you should get help to compose a coherent question.

SO WHAT?

Is that even remotely connected to the fact that this guy looked like AL JOLSON doing blackface????

James Whitmore was an actor doing his job ... like the three actors that I named.

Hollywood was the culprit here, not the actors. Hollywood, at the time, was too racist to hire someone that wasn't white.


This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 2, 2018 12:44 PM MDT

he wasn't a child thru the whole movie...he grew into a successful black man...built a bigger house and everything.

If you're talking about "The Jerk,"  he wasn't a very young child in any part of the movie.  First time you see him, on the porch dancing, he's already grown with gray hair.  :)

yes...but he talks about being born a poor black child. I think its right before he goes off hitchhiking and accepts a ride to the end of the fence.Been a lot of years since ive seen it, but I do remember a few parts. This post was edited by maggie at April 2, 2018 12:49 PM MDT

Yes he does ... just like in the movie trailer I posted (except the black & white pictures and editorial aren't in the movie).

The movie starts off in front of a theater and pans to the alley next to it and there sits Steve and he's asked to tell his story.
As he starts his story, the scene changes to:  Dancing on the porch of his child hood home (he's an adult with gray hair at the 2:25 mark).

Anyway, being born a poor, black child was just suppose to be funny and the hook to get into the story.  Portraying him as black was never necessary. The movie doesn't even try to explain how he changed color.  Just suppose to be funny and it was ... to me anyway.

because he was so stupid that he thought he was black because his family was . it was about making fun of how stupid he was...like when he thought someone was mad at the oil cans at the gas station, how he thought he made it in life because he was in the phone book,.,,is what I got out of it...oh and how he was going to send more money home because patty promised him a job...and he belonged with the curly haired girl ,,,because he had a special purpose. .He was an idiot...but that was the character. This post was edited by maggie at April 2, 2018 1:40 PM MDT

Even in modern movies it's not unknown to have Indians played by Caucasian actors, even though it's less common than it was. "The Homesman" (2014) for instance. 

I never really was a big fan of the stars...they still seem like a bunch of weirdos...and never look happy. This post was edited by maggie at April 2, 2018 12:56 PM MDT

That's right!  It had been so long since I'd seen the movie I'd forgotten that he pretending/portraying a black man.

Whitman Whitmore, Neither are the whitest person on earth:
Not an albino (The eyes would be red) just white white white.