Stepin Fetchit

Stepin Fetchit was married three times in his life. His first wife Dorothy Stevenson, whom he was married in 1929, gave birth to their son, Jemajo, the following year. The marriage ended in 1931.

He married his second wife Winifred Johnson in 1937 and a year later he had his second son Donald. The pair split up soon after and he married his third wife Bernice Sims in 1951.

His second son Donald died under mysterious circumstances in 1969. It was reported that he went on a shooting spree, injuring sixteen and killing four, including his wife, with an M1 Carbine and a .30 caliber Marlin carbine in Pennsylvania Turnpike, before killing himself at the end. However, Stepin believed that his son was set-up as he was becoming a strong name in the ‘black power movement’. But his death was ruled as murder-suicide as no evidence was found to satisfy the theories claimed by the family.

Stepin Fetchit was born as Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry on May 30, 1902 in Key West, Florida to Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica, and Dora Monroe, a seamstress from Nassau. Both of his parents were immigrants from the West Indies who had moved to the United States in the 1890s.

Some sources state that he was adopted at the age of eleven when the family moved to Tampa, Florida.

Perry's mother wanted him to be a dentist; as a result, he was adopted by a ‘quack’ dentist who promised to train him. However, he was made to polish boots for his new guardian and at the age of twelve, he ran away from there to revive his life, working in a carnival as an entertainer.

Perry started his career as a comic character actor and by the time he turned twenty, he had become the manager of a traveling carnival show. He used the stage name ‘step and fetch it’ on a show after he won money betting on a racehorse named ‘Step and Fetch It’. This is how he adopted his stage name, Stepin Fetchit.

As an actor he often portrayed illiterate, dim-witted, and lazy characters on the stage and in films. However, in real life he was well-read and made a small career writing for the ‘The Chicago Defender’ alongside being an actor.

In 1927, he made a big impact in the industry with his powerful performance in the movie ‘In Old Kentucky’ alongside actress Carolynne Snowden. Their romantic connection in the movie was a rarity at that time (an African-American actor working with a white cast), and as a result, it earned Stepin a lot of positive feedback from the critics and he signed a five-year studio contract.

His rise in the industry that was prominently led by white actors was initially seen as a positive turn for black actors. In 1929, he appeared in a movie titled ‘Hearts in Dixie’ which was the first studio production to boast of a predominantly black cast. In the same year, he appeared in many other movies including ‘Kid's Clever’, ‘The Ghost Talk’, ‘Show Boat’, ‘Innocents of Paris’, and ‘Big Time’.

Stepin shared a good relationship with his colleague and comic actor Will Rogers, with whom he appeared in movies like ‘Judge Priest’, ‘David Harum’, ‘Steamboat 'Round the Bend’, and ‘The County Chairman’ between 1934 and 1935.

The Stepin Fetchit starrer ‘Hearts in Dixie’ (1929) was a landmark in Hollywood as it was one of the first big-studio productions to boast of a predominantly African-American cast. The film celebrated African-American music and dance, and featured characters with dignity.