Noble Johnson
Noble Johnson, later known as Mark Noble, was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in films such as The Mummy, The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong and Son of Kong. He founded Lincoln Motion Picture Company.
Biography
Johnson was born in 1881 in Marshall, Missouri. He was of African-American ancestry. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. At age fifteen, Johnson left school to help his father, a horse trader, with work. In 1909, Johnson entered the film industry. Standing 6'2" and weighing 215 pounds, Johnson had an impressive physique that made him in demand as a character actor and bit player. In the silent era, he assumed a wide variety of characters of different races due to his lighter complexion. While Johnson was cast as black characters in many films, he also played Native American, Arab, and Asian parts.
Noble was good friends with fellow actor Lon Chaney, his schoolmate in Colorado. He was also an entrepreneur, founding his own studio, Lincoln Motion Picture Company, in 1916 in Omaha, Nebraska, with his younger brother George Perry Johnson. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was an African-American film company that produced what were called "race films", movies made for the African-American audience, which was largely ignored by the "mainstream" film industry, and was the first to produce movies portraying African-Americans as real people instead of as racist caricatures. Johnson, who served as president of the company and was its primary asset as a star actor, helped support the studio by acting in other companies' productions such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and investing his pay from those films in Lincoln. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company moved to Los Angeles in 1917.
Lincoln's first picture was The Realization of a Negro's Ambition. For four years, Johnson managed to keep Lincoln a going concern, primarily through his extraordinary commitment to African-American filmmaking. However, he reluctantly resigned as president in 1920 because he could no longer continue his double business life, maintaining a demanding career in Hollywood films while trying to run a studio.
In the 1920s, Johnson was a very busy character actor, appearing in silent films such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille's original The Ten Commandments, The Thief of Bagdad, Dante's Inferno and When a Man Loves. He made the transition to sound films, appearing in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu as Li Po, in Moby Dick as Queequeg to John Barrymore's Captain Ahab, and in the Boris Karloff film The Mummy as "the Nubian". He was also the Native Chief on Skull Island in the classic King Kong and appeared in Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon as one of the porters. One of his later films was John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, in which he played Native American Chief Red Shirt. He retired from the movie industry in 1950.
Johnson died of natural causes on January 9, 1978, in Yucaipa, California. He is buried in the Garden of Peace at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, California.
Selected filmography
Intolerance as Babylonian Soldier Kinkaid, Gambler as Romero Valdez20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Fighting for Love as Johnny Little BearLove Aflame as Cannibal KingThe Terror as Mike TregurthaMr. Dolan of New York as Thomas Jefferson JonesThe Hero of the Hour as Native AmericanThe Red Ace as Little BearBull's Eye as Sweeney BodinThe Law of Nature The Lure of the Circus as Silent AndyThe Midnight Man as SpikeLightning Bryce as Dopey Sam's Henchman / Arnold's Butler Under Crimson Skies as Baltimore BuckoThe Adorable Savage as Ratu MadriSunset Sprague as The CrowThe Leopard Woman as Chaké - Madame's SlaveThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as Conquest The Wallop as EspinolThe Bronze Bell as ChatterjiSerenade as Capt. RamirezThe Adventures of Robinson Crusoe as FridayTracks as Leon SerranoThe Loaded Door as Blackie LopezCaptain Fly-by-Night as Indian Drums of Fate as Native KingHaunted Valley Burning Words as Bad PierreThe Ten Commandments as The Bronze Man A Man's Mate as LionThe Thief of Bagdad as The Indian PrinceThe Midnight Express as Deputy SheriffLittle Robinson Crusoe as Marimba, Cannibal ChiefDante's Inferno as Devil Whipping Woman The Navigator as Cannibal Chief The Dancers as PonfiloAdventure as GoogomyBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ as Crowd Member The Gold Hunters as WabigoonHands Up! as Sitting BullThe Law of the Snow Country as MartellThe Flaming Frontier as Chief Sitting BullAloma of the South Seas The Lady of the Harem as Tax CollectorWhen a Man Loves as Aggressive Apache Red Clay as Chief Bear PawThe King of Kings as CharioteerVanity as Bimbo, Ship's CookTopsy and Eva as Uncle TomSoft Cushions as The Captain of the GuardThe Gateway of the Moon as SorianoSomething Always Happens as The ThingWhy Sailors Go Wrong as Native The Yellow Cameo as Smoke DawsonManhattan Knights as Doc MellisThe Black Ace Yellow Contraband as Li Wong FooNoah's Ark as Slave BrokerSal of Singapore as Erickson's 1st MateRedskin as Pueblo JimBlack Waters as JeeloThe Four Feathers as AhmedThe Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu as Li PoMamba as Hassim Moby Dick as QueequegRenegades as Youssef Kismet Son of India as Guard East of Borneo as OsmanSafe in Hell as Bobo, Caribbean PolicemanMurders in the Rue Morgue as Janos The Black OneMystery Ranch as Mudo, HenchmanThe Most Dangerous Game as IvanThe Mummy as The NubianNagana as Head BoatmanWhite Woman as Native Chief King Kong as Native ChiefRoman Scandals as Torturer Son of Kong as Native Chief Massacre as Indian Leader Murder in Trinidad as QueechieKid Millions as Attendant The Lives of a Bengal Lancer as Ram SinghShe as Amahaggar Chief Dante's Inferno as Devil Escape from Devil's Island as BiscoMy American Wife as Native American Nation Leader Mummy's Boys as Tattoo Artist The Plainsman as Native American #1 with Painted Horse Lost Horizon as Leader of Porters on return journey Wee Willie Winkie as Sikh Policeman Conquest as Roustan Four Men and a Prayer as Native Mysterious Mr. Moto as Native Sergeant Hawk of the Wilderness as MokuyiFrontier Pony Express as Luke Johnson, outlaw gang leaderJuarez as Gen. Regules Union Pacific as Native American Shooting Piano Tropic Fury as Hannibal, Slave-DriverDrums Along the Mohawk as Indian Allegheny Uprising as Captured Delaware Native American Green Hell as Hostile, Tribe Chief The Ghost Breakers as The ZombieThe Ranger and the Lady as LoboNorth West Mounted Police as Indian Seven Sinners as Irate Russian Road to Zanzibar as ChiefHurry, Charlie, Hurry as Chief Poison ArrowAloma of the South Seas as MoukaliShut My Big Mouth as Chief Standing BullThe Mad Doctor of Market Street as Native Chief ElanJungle Book as SikhTen Gentlemen from West Point as TecumsehDanger in the Pacific as Native Chief Night in New Orleans as CarneyThank Your Lucky Stars as Charlie the Indian The Desert Song as Abdel Rahmen A Game of Death as CaribAngel on My Shoulder as Trustee in Hell Plainsman and the Lady as WassaoHard Boiled Mahoney as HassonSlave Girl as Native Guard Along the Oregon Trail as Indian Chief Unconquered as Tall Ottawa Shot at Gilded Beaver The Gallant Legion as Chief Black Eagle Dream Girl as Bartender She Wore a Yellow Ribbon as Chief Red ShirtRock Island Trail as Bent CreekNorth of the Great Divide as Nagura, Oseka Chief