Smoki Whitfield
Smoki Whitfield was an African American actor, comedian, and musician.
Biography
Smoki was born in Pittsburgh to John and Effie Whitfield. He attended the University of Oregon, where he was a star athlete and made appearances in school plays.In the 1940s, he began a career as a character actor in Hollywood. He appeared in a third of the dozen Bomba, [the Jungle Boy] films. Over the next few decades, he amassed more than 50 on-screen credits. In the 1950s, he worked as a manager and MC at a number of Hawaiian nightclubs. He later worked at the Top Banana Club in North Hollywood.
In the 1959-1960 Walt [Disney Studios (division)|Walt Disney Studios] miniseries The [Swamp Fox (TV series)|The Swamp Fox], Whitfield played Oscar Marion, opposite Leslie Nielsen's Francis Marion. Oscar Marion was Francis Marion's man-servant, slave and friend. Whitfield sang the series' theme song, adding new verses in each of the eight installments to chronicle the characters' latest adventures. Sadly, he was given no on-screen credit for his significant role in the series.
Whitfield died in 1967 of a heart attack in North Hollywood after a lengthy illness. He was survived by his wife, Eileen Jackson, and two sons.