The Life of Noble Johnson
Noble Mark Johnson was born on April 18, 1881 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is the older brother to George Johnson. After moving to Omaha, Nebraska in 1915, together in 1916 the brothers would form the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. They had formed this company as a protest against the film The Birth of a Nation, which was a popular racist silent-film that had come out the year prior. This film company they formed was the first of its kind, with Black actors meant for a Black audience, and funded by Black financing.
Unfortunately with the combination of post-World War I depression and lack of popularity, the company would be forced to close in 1921. Despite the closure of the company, Noble Johnson was often casted as other races in films because of his lighter complection compared to his brother. His roles consisted of "exotic" type casts, and was never associated with other Blacks actors of the silent film industry. From 1921 through 1924, Noble was in 18 different roles in 18 different films included "The Ten Commandments" and "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Noble Johnson would continue acting consistently in both silent and sound films until his retirement in the late 1950s. Noble was in about 130 films throughout his life, although often not getting credit for his roles in the films. He would pass away in 1978 at 96 from natural causes.
Wishart, D. J. (Ed.). (n.d.). Noble Johnson. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska–Lincoln. https://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.afam.024.html
Geraghty, C. (2020, July 20). Noble Johnson: A man whose body of work is more famous than his name. Norman Studios. https://normanstudios.org/blog/2020/07/20/noble-johnson-a-man-whose-body-of-work-is-more-famous-than-his-name/
