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Noble Johnson
Noble Johnson
	Johnson in 1915
Born	April 18, 1881; Marshall, Missouri, U.S.
Died	January 9, 1978 (aged 96); Yucaipa, California, U.S.
Resting place	Eternal Valley Memorial Park, Newhall, California
Other names	Mark Noble
Years active	1915–1950
Spouse(s)	Ruth Thornton; (m. 1912; div. 19??) ; Gladys Blackwell
Relatives	George Perry Johnson (brother)

Noble Johnson (April 18, 1881 – January 9, 1978), later known as Mark Noble, was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in films such as The Mummy (1932), The Most Dangerous Game (1932), King Kong (1933) and Son of Kong (1933).

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. ^[1]

Noble was good friends with fellow actor Lon Chaney, his schoolmate in Colorado.^[2] 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 (apart from director Harry A. Gant) 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 was followed into the race film business by Oscar Micheaux and others). 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 (1916), and investing his pay from those films in Lincoln. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company moved to Los Angeles in 1917 and became defunct in 1922.

Lincoln's first picture was The Realization of a Negro's Ambition (1916). 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 (1921) with Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille's original The Ten Commandments (1923), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), Dante's Inferno (1924) and When a Man Loves (1927). He made the transition to sound films, appearing in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) as Li Po, in Moby Dick (1930) as Queequeg to John Barrymore's Captain Ahab, and in the Boris Karloff film The Mummy (1932) as "the Nubian". He was also the Native Chief on Skull Island in the classic King Kong (1933) (and its sequel The Son of Kong, 1933) and appeared in Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon (1937) as one of the porters. One of his later films was John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), 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

Noble Johnson with Bela Lugosi and Sidney Fox in *Murders in the Rue Morgue*, 1932

Intolerance (1916) as Babylonian Soldier (uncredited)
Kinkaid, Gambler (1916) as Romero Valdez
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) (uncredited)
Fighting for Love (1917) as Johnny Little Bear
Love Aflame (1917) as Cannibal King
The Terror (1917) as Mike Tregurtha
Mr. Dolan of New York (1917) as Thomas Jefferson Jones
The Hero of the Hour (1917) as Native American
The Red Ace (1917) as Little Bear
Bull's Eye (1917) as Sweeney Bodin
The Law of Nature (1917)
The Lure of the Circus (1918) as Silent Andy
The Midnight Man (1919) as Spike
Lightning Bryce (1919) as Dopey Sam's Henchman (Episode #5) / Arnold's Butler (Episodes #12 & #13) (uncredited)
Under Crimson Skies (1920) as Baltimore Bucko
The Adorable Savage (1920) as Ratu Madri
Sunset Sprague (1920) as The Crow
The Leopard Woman (1920) as Chaké - Madame's Slave
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) as Conquest (uncredited)
The Wallop (1921) as Espinol
The Bronze Bell (1921) as Chatterji
Serenade (1921) as Capt. Ramirez
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1922) as Friday
Tracks (1922) as Leon Serrano
The Loaded Door (1922) as Blackie Lopez
Captain Fly-by-Night (1922) as Indian (uncredited)
Drums of Fate (1923) as Native King
Haunted Valley (1923)
Burning Words (1923) as Bad Pierre
The Ten Commandments (1923) as The Bronze Man (Prologue)
A Man's Mate (1924) as Lion
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) as The Indian Prince
The Midnight Express (1924) as Deputy Sheriff
Little Robinson Crusoe (1924) as Marimba, Cannibal Chief
Dante's Inferno (1924) as Devil Whipping Woman (uncredited)
The Navigator (1924) as Cannibal Chief (uncredited)
The Dancers (1925) as Ponfilo
Adventure (1925) as Googomy
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) as Crowd Member (uncredited)
The Gold Hunters (1925) as Wabigoon
Hands Up! (1926) as Sitting Bull
The Law of the Snow Country (1926) as Martell
The Flaming Frontier (1926) as Chief Sitting Bull
Aloma of the South Seas (1926)
The Lady of the Harem (1926) as Tax Collector
When a Man Loves (1927) as Aggressive Apache (uncredited)
Red Clay (1927) as Chief Bear Paw
The King of Kings (1927) as Charioteer
Vanity (1927) as Bimbo, Ship's Cook
Topsy and Eva (1927) as Uncle Tom
Soft Cushions (1927) as The Captain of the Guard
The Gateway of the Moon (1928) as Soriano
Something Always Happens (1928) as The Thing
Why Sailors Go Wrong (1928) as Native (uncredited)
The Yellow Cameo (1928) as Smoke Dawson
Manhattan Knights (1928) as Doc Mellis
The Black Ace (1928)
Yellow Contraband (1928) as Li Wong Foo
Noah's Ark (1928) as Slave Broker
Sal of Singapore (1928) as Erickson's 1st Mate
Redskin (1929) as Pueblo Jim
Black Waters (1929) as Jeelo
The Four Feathers (1929) as Ahmed
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) as Li Po
Mamba (1930) as Hassim (uncredited)
Moby Dick (1930) as Queequeg
Renegades (1930) as Youssef (uncredited)
Kismet (1930) (uncredited)
Son of India (1931) as Guard (uncredited)
East of Borneo (1931) as Osman
Safe in Hell (1931) as Bobo, Caribbean Policeman
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) as Janos The Black One
Mystery Ranch (1932) as Mudo, Henchman
The Most Dangerous Game (1932) as Ivan
The Mummy (1932) as The Nubian
Nagana (1933) as Head Boatman
White Woman (1933) as Native Chief (uncredited)
King Kong (1933) as Native Chief
Roman Scandals (1933) as Torturer (uncredited)
Son of Kong (1933) as Native Chief (uncredited)
Massacre (1934) as Indian Leader (uncredited)
Murder in Trinidad (1934) as Queechie
Kid Millions (1934) as Attendant (uncredited)
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) as Ram Singh
She (1935) as Amahaggar Chief (uncredited)
Dante's Inferno (1935) as Devil (uncredited)
Escape from Devil's Island (1935) as Bisco
My American Wife (1936) as Native American Nation Leader (uncredited)
Mummy's Boys (1936) as Tattoo Artist (uncredited)
The Plainsman (1936) as Native American #1 with Painted Horse (uncredited)
Lost Horizon (1937) as Leader of Porters on return journey (uncredited)
Wee Willie Winkie (1937) as Sikh Policeman (uncredited)
Conquest (1937) as Roustan (uncredited)
Four Men and a Prayer (1938) as Native (uncredited)
Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938) as Native Sergeant (uncredited)
Hawk of the Wilderness (1938) as Mokuyi
Frontier Pony Express (1939) as Luke Johnson, outlaw gang leader
Juarez (1939) as Gen. Regules (uncredited)
Union Pacific (1939) as Native American Shooting Piano (uncredited)
Tropic Fury (1939) as Hannibal, Slave-Driver
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) as Indian (uncredited)
Allegheny Uprising (1939) as Captured Delaware Native American (uncredited)
Green Hell (1940) as Hostile, Tribe Chief (uncredited)
The Ghost Breakers (1940) as The Zombie
The Ranger and the Lady (1940) as Lobo
North West Mounted Police (1940) as Indian (uncredited)
Seven Sinners (1940) as Irate Russian (uncredited)
Road to Zanzibar (1941) as Chief
Hurry, Charlie, Hurry (1941) as Chief Poison Arrow
Aloma of the South Seas (1941) as Moukali
Shut My Big Mouth (1942) as Chief Standing Bull
The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942) as Native Chief Elan
Jungle Book (1942) as Sikh
Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) as Tecumseh
Danger in the Pacific (1942) as Native Chief (uncredited)
Night in New Orleans (1942) as Carney
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) as Charlie the Indian (uncredited)
The Desert Song (1943) as Abdel Rahmen (uncredited)
A Game of Death (1945) as Carib
Angel on My Shoulder (1946) as Trustee in Hell (uncredited)
Plainsman and the Lady (1946) as Wassao
Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947) as Hasson
Slave Girl (1947) as Native Guard (uncredited)
Along the Oregon Trail (1947) as Indian Chief (uncredited)
Unconquered (1947) as Tall Ottawa Shot at Gilded Beaver (uncredited)
The Gallant Legion (1948) as Chief Black Eagle (uncredited)
Dream Girl (1948) as Bartender (uncredited)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) as Chief Red Shirt
Rock Island Trail (1950) as Bent Creek
North of the Great Divide (1950) as Nagura, Oseka Chief (final film role)

References

^ Geraghty, Cassandra (July 20, 2020). "Noble Johnson: A Man Whose Body of Work is More Famous than His Name". normanstudios.org. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
^ UCLA Oral History Project George P. Johnson Collector of Negro Film History (1970), page 40