Anthony Quinn Exposed the 8 Worst Racist Stars in Old Hollywood History

Anthony Quinn spent six decades inside an American entertainment industry that made him the first Mexican-American to win an Academy Award, gave him a second Oscar four years later, cast him as every ethnicity Hollywood needed a leading man for, and placed him at the center of over 170 films from his 1936 Paramount debut through his 2001 death. From his beginnings as an itinerant construction worker in East Los Angeles, through his 1952 Best Supporting Actor win for Viva Zapata!, through his defining 1964 role as Zorba the Greek, and into his June 3, 2001 death at age 86 in Boston, Quinn stood at the center of Old Hollywood as one of the few brown men Hollywood permitted to become a leading star. His 1972 autobiography The Original Sin and his 1995 follow-up One Man Tango documented the specific stars whose public warmth concealed the private racism he witnessed for six decades. This video traces the eight figures Quinn encountered: from Adolphe Menjou's October 21, 1947 HUAC friendly witness testimony, through Vivien Leigh's private racism during the Gone With the Wind production, through Ward Bond's Motion Picture Alliance leadership, through Cary Grant's wartime associations, through Clark Gable's Gone With the Wind on-set behavior, through Gary Cooper's October 23, 1947 HUAC testimony, through John Ford's behavior toward Native American extras that Quinn witnessed personally, and into Katharine Hepburn's private racism documented in the biographies after her 2003 death. What's covered in this video: Adolphe Menjou's 50-year Hollywood career across 150 films including The Front Page, A Star Is Born, and Paths of Glory, his October 21, 1947 HUAC friendly witness testimony, and his founding membership of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in 1944 alongside Walt Disney, John Wayne, and Ward Bond. Vivien Leigh's 1939 Gone With the Wind Scarlett O'Hara role, her 1951 Best Actress Oscar for A Streetcar Named Desire, and her documented private treatment of Hattie McDaniel preserved across Anne Edwards and other biographers who recorded the racial politics her public warmth at the Oscars ceremony had concealed. Ward Bond's 200-film Hollywood career, his 30-year friendship with John Wayne, his role as wagon master Major Seth Adams across NBC's Wagon Train series from 1957 through 1960, and his documented on-set racial language toward Native American extras on John Ford productions where Quinn worked alongside him. Cary Grant's 34-year Hollywood career across 76 films including The Philadelphia Story and North by Northwest, his documented wartime association with Charles Bedaux, the industrialist arrested by American forces in 1943 on charges of collaboration with Nazi Germany who committed suicide in federal custody in February 1944, and his refusal to attend integrated Hollywood social gatherings. Clark Gable's 1934 Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night, his 60-film career, his 1939 Gone With the Wind Rhett Butler role, his documented private language toward Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, and his attendance at the December 1939 Atlanta premiere from which Hattie McDaniel was excluded because of Georgia segregation laws. Gary Cooper's two Best Actor Oscars for Sergeant York in 1941 and High Noon in 1952, his October 23, 1947 HUAC friendly witness testimony two days after Menjou telling the committee he had turned down scripts tinged with communist ideas, and his 1940 Cecil B. DeMille Northwest Mounted Police production alongside Anthony Quinn where Quinn played a Métis villain. John Ford's four Best Director Oscars, his 50-year directing career including Stagecoach and The Searchers, his documented on-set behavior toward Native American extras including aggressive racial language on productions in 1939, 1949, and 1956, and his 1940 production The Long Voyage Home where Quinn played the Filipino crew member Donkeyman and witnessed Ford's conduct firsthand. Mentioned in this video: Anthony Quinn, Adolphe Menjou, Vivien Leigh, Ward Bond, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Ford, Katharine Hepburn, Walt Disney, John Wayne, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, Charles Bedaux, Cecil B. DeMille, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, A. Scott Berg, William Mann, David O. Selznick, Motion Picture Alliance, HUAC, FBI, The Original Sin, One Man Tango, Viva Zapata!, Zorba the Greek, Gone With the Wind, Wagon Train, Paths of Glory, It Happened One Then, Sergeant York, High Noon, Stagecoach, Northwest Mounted Police, The Long Voyage Home, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Old Hollywood Golden Age. #AnthonyQuinn #GoldenAgeHollywood #HollywoodSecrets