Madame Sul-Te-Wan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Madame Sul-Te-Wan (born Nellie Crawford; March 7, 1873 – February 1, 1959) was the first African-American actress to sign a film contract and be a featured performer. She was an American stage, film and television actress for over 50 years. The daughter of former slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the East Coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community. She became known as a character actress, appeared in high-profile films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), and easily navigated the transition to the sound films.
In 1986, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 2.091 |
| Birthday | 1873-03-07 |
| Place of Birth | Louisville, Kentucky, USA |
| Also Known As | Nellie Wan, Nellie Crawford, Madame Sultewan, Madame Wan, Sul-Te-Wan, |
1925
The Narrow Street
0/0
Simon Haldane works in the office of the Faulkner Iron Works, but he has been raised by his two maiden aunts in an extremely sheltered manner and is b...
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The Narrow Street
1934
Black Moon
5.1/24
A woman returning to her island birthplace finds herself drawn to a voodoo cult.
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Black Moon
1918
Who's Your Father?
0/0
This comedy starts with the rescue by a cowboy's dog of a baby that is floating down a gorge toward a cataract in a tiny crib. The cowboy takes the fo...
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Who's Your Father?
1931
The Pagan Lady
2.5/2
Dot starts out as a bartender in Havana when in walks Dingo Mike (Charles Bickford) and orders up a drink that sounds like something you'd consume on...
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The Pagan Lady
1918
Tarzan of the Apes
5.318/22
A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and...
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Tarzan of the Apes
1938
In Old Chicago
6.4/37
The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.
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In Old Chicago
1927
Uncle Tom's Cabin
6.9/9
In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, E...
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
1922
Manslaughter
5.4/10
Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of motorcycle policeman.
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Manslaughter
1930
The Thoroughbred
4.6/4
Unemployed jockey Tod Taylor gets a huge break when he is hired by Matt Riley. Within weeks, Taylor is riding Riley's horses to a string of victories....
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The Thoroughbred
1938
The Affairs of Annabel
4/3
Wonder Pictures has been striking out at the box office lately, causing the seedy PR man to involve main star Annabel in ever outrageous stunts for pu...
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The Affairs of Annabel
1939
Tell No Tales
5.3/5
A newspaper editor turns a kidnapping into the banner headlines and exclusive story that could save his publication.
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Tell No Tales
1931
Heaven on Earth
3/1
A young boy finds out that the man he thought was his father actually killed his real father, then adopted him.
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Heaven on Earth
1958
Tarzan and the Trappers
4/22
Tarzan goes up against a baddie by the name of Schroeder, who is trapping animals and selling them illegally to zoos. A twist is thrown into the plot...
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Tarzan and the Trappers
1943
Revenge of the Zombies
5.2/24
When Dr. Von Altermann's wife Lila dies mysteriously at his spooky mansion her relations suspect murder. They also suspect the doctor is turning her i...
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Revenge of the Zombies
1938
Kentucky
5.7/11
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with...
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Kentucky
1929
Thunderbolt
5.8/26
A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and wh...
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Thunderbolt
1937
Maid of Salem
5.9/7
When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes a scandal in the Puritanical town of Salem, Massachuse...
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Maid of Salem
1930
Sarah and Son
5.182/11
A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wi...
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Sarah and Son
1939
Torchy Blane.. Playing with Dynamite
6/4
Torchy Blane and Steve McBride try to nab a gangster by tracking his moll.
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Torchy Blane.. Playing with Dynamite
1927
College
6.8/114
A bookish college student dismissive of athletics is compelled to try out sports to win the affection of the girl he loves.
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College
1916
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
7/338
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1918
Old Wives for New
6.6/7
Charles Murdock neglects his fat and lazy wife for another woman; When his other love interest becomes involved in a murder, he leaves for Paris.
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Old Wives for New
1940
Love Thy Neighbor
6.5/2
Capitalizing on the famous radio 'feud' between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen. The two stars play versions of themselves, constantly at each oth...
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Love Thy Neighbor
1940
Safari
4/1
Millionaire Baron de Courland and his fiancée Linda Stewart employ Jim Logan as a guide for their hunting trip in the jungle. Linda finds unplanned ad...
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Safari
1940
Maryland
6.2/2
A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his fa...
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Maryland
1943
Thank Your Lucky Stars
6.1/33
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
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Thank Your Lucky Stars
1936
San Francisco
6.6/70
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 19...
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San Francisco
1938
Island in the Sky
7/4
A secretary (Gloria Stuart) solves a murder for her boyfriend (Michael Whalen) in the district attorney's office.
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Island in the Sky
1935
So Red the Rose
6/1
During the American Civil War, Valette Bedford waits patiently for her husband Duncan Bedford, to return home, praying that she will not become a wido...
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So Red the Rose
1932
Jungle Mystery
0/0
In Africa, two hunters meet a girl and her father who are searching for her lost brother. Their search is complicated by rival hunters who are after i...
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Jungle Mystery
1934
A Modern Hero
7/3
A 1920s circus performer uses every means at his disposal to achieve fame and fortune at the expense of others.
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A Modern Hero
1934
Operator 13
5.7/13
American Civil War, 1862. After the disaster of the Second Battle of Bull Run, Major Allen, chief of the Secret Service of the Union, asks actress Gai...
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Operator 13
1933
King Kong
7.6/1473
Adventurous filmmaker Carl Denham sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darro...
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King Kong
1933
Ladies They Talk About
6.1/38
A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.
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Ladies They Talk About
1915
The Cause of It All
0/0
Dr. Spencer's wife becomes intensely jealous when she finds, in her husband's coat, a note signed "Mary," which asks him to visit the writer at the Ho...
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The Cause of It All
1916
The Children Pay
0/0
What will become of the Children in a home divided....
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The Children Pay
1917
Stage Struck
0/0
A 1917 film directed by Edward Morrissey.
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Stage Struck
1920
Why Change Your Wife?
5.9/14
Robert and Beth Bordon are married but share little. He runs into Sally at a cabaret and the Gordons are soon divorced. Just as he gets bored with Sal...
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Why Change Your Wife?
1929
The Carnation Kid
0/0
It's a case of mistaken identity in this comedy that centers around a country bumpkin mistaken for a Chicago hitman.
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The Carnation Kid
1932
Queen Kelly
6.5/43
A prince betrothed to a mad queen falls in love with an orphan girl from a convent.
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Queen Kelly
1925
The Golden Bed
3.5/2
Femme fatale Flora marries a titled European to save the family planation. Her husband and a rival fall to their deaths in a glacier. Next Flora weds...
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The Golden Bed
1919
His Musical Sneeze
5.3/3
A young man goes into the woods to hunt rabbits, and winds up getting mixed up with a dog, a lion and a beautiful woman.
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His Musical Sneeze
Squirrel Food
0/0
A fortuneteller informs Monte that he will marry the first girl he meets. After several false starts, he meets what he is sure is "the" girl. She take...
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Squirrel Food
1949
The Story of Seabiscuit
5.8/13
Horse trainer Shawn O'Hara and his lovely niece, Margaret, come to America to escape the memory of an accident involving Margaret's brother, Danny. Wo...
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The Story of Seabiscuit
1949
Mighty Joe Young
6.3/110
A young woman, Jill Young, grew up on her father's ranch in Africa, raising a large gorilla named Joe from an infant. Years later, she brings him to H...
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Mighty Joe Young
1938
The Toy Wife
4.8/6
A Southern belle finds herself torn between two suitors.
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The Toy Wife
1958
The Buccaneer
6.4/46
During the War of 1812 against Britain: General Andrew Jackson has only 1,200 men left to defend New Orleans when he learns that a British fleet will...
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The Buccaneer
1957
Band of Angels
6.1/41
Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widowed father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and...
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Band of Angels
1942
Mokey
5/2
A newlywed tries to deal with her troubled stepchild.
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Mokey
1957
Something of Value
5.4/17
As Kenya's Mau Mau uprising tears the country apart, former childhood friends Kimani (Sidney Poitier), a native, and Peter (Rock Hudson), a British co...
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Something of Value
1954
Carmen Jones
5.981/81
Carmen, a seductive woman, seduces a young soldier, Joe, in order to avoid imprisonment. However, when she leaves Joe for another man, he seeks reveng...
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Carmen Jones
1941
Sullivan's Travels
7.412/461
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise a...
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Sullivan's Travels
1941
King of the Zombies
5.2/44
During World War II, a small plane somewhere over the Caribbean runs low on fuel and is blown off course by a storm. Guided by a faint radio signal, t...
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King of the Zombies
1915
The Birth of a Nation
6.014/531
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is capture...
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The Birth of a Nation
1916
Hoodoo Ann
5.6/13
A teenage orphan (who believes herself to be "hoodooed") is taken in by a childless couple and quickly falls for the boy next door; Her luck seems to...
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Hoodoo Ann
1924
The Lightning Rider
0/0
A bandit known as The Black Mask is terrorizing the countryside around the California border town of Caliboro. When word spreads that the Mask's gang...
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The Lightning Rider
1934
Imitation of Life
7/83
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face fami...
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Imitation of Life
1922
The Show
6.5/10
A harried propman backstage at a theater must put up with malfunctioning wind machines, roosters that spit nitroglycerine, and a gang planning to rob...
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