| Smoki Whitfield | |
| Birth Name: | Robert Jordan Whitfield |
| Birth Date: | August 3, 1918 |
| Birth Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Death Date: | November 11, 1967 (aged 49) |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Education: | University of Oregon |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Spouse: | Eileen Jackson |
| Children: | 2 |
Smoki Whitfield (born Robert Whitfield, and sometimes credited as Jordan Whitfield; August 3, 1918 - November 11, 1967) was an African American actor, comedian, and musician.[1] [2] [3]
Smoki was born in Pittsburgh to John and Effie (Walker) Whitfield. He attended the University of Oregon, where he was a star athlete and made appearances in school plays.[4] [5] [6] [7]
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.[8] [9] He later worked at the Top Banana Club in North Hollywood.[10]
In the 1959-1960 Walt Disney Studios miniseries 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. [11] 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.[12]