Star of the Month: Paul Robeson

TCM, beginning at 7 p.m. Actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson, famed for the recognizable bass baritone voice he brought to his acting and music, is the subject of this month’s Sunday-evening

Star of the Month salute on Turner Classic Movies. The first film tonight is Robeson’s movie debut, the 1925 silent production Body and Soul (pictured), which was one of the so-called “race films” of that era geared toward Black audiences. The movie was produced, written, directed and distributed by pioneering Black filmmaker and independent producer Oscar Micheaux, and Robeson — given the fame he had already achieved acting onstage during the Harlem Renaissance — agreed to star in the film for a $100-per-week salary plus 3% of EVERETT COLLECTION the gross after the first $40,000 in receipts. Body and Soul was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2019 for its cultural and historical significance. Also tonight: the network premiere of the Oscarwinning 1979 documentary short Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist, narrated by Sidney Poitier; and The Emperor Jones, the 1933 adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play, with Robeson in the title role, which he had previously played onstage. Like Body and Soul, this drama was produced outside

the Hollywood studio system and has been preserved in the National Film Registry.