Orlando Martins Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Orlando Martins (1899–1985) was a pioneering black actor in film and on stage. In the late 1940s, he was one of England's most prominent and leading black actors, and in a poll conducted in 1947, he was listed among England's top 15 favorite actors. Born in Lagos, Nigeria to a civil servant Brazilian father, he came to England after World War I, during which he served as a stoker on the old Mauretania to avenge German cruelty to his family. On arrival in England he joined Sanger's Circus and started his performing career in the chorus. He is a related to the Ben Epega family. He was an... MORE

Orlando Martins (1899–1985) was a pioneering black actor in film and on stage. In the late 1940s, he was one of England's most prominent and leading black actors, and in a poll conducted in 1947, he was listed among England's top 15 favorite actors. Born in Lagos, Nigeria to a civil servant Brazilian father, he came to England after World War I, during which he served as a stoker on the old Mauretania to avenge German cruelty to his family. On arrival in England he joined Sanger's Circus and started his performing career in the chorus. He is a related to the Ben Epega family. He was an extra on his first acting job in a ballet company. He also worked as a wrestler and was on the tour of the British Company: Show boat as a professional singer. In the 1930s he went into acting on the London stage, starring in among other things, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a 1936 play by C.L.R. James which also starred the legendary Paul Robeson. He also featured in the 1935 film with Robeson, Sanders of the River and Men of Two Worlds (1946) alongside Robert Adams. LESS