Kador Ben-Salim

Kador Ben-Salim was a Senegalese-Soviet acrobat, Red Army soldier and most likely the only actor of African descent in Soviet film throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. A veteran of the Russian Civil War, he appeared in at least eight films, including The Return of Nathan Becker, the first ever Yiddish-language sound film.

Biography

Ben-Salim was an acrobat in a touring Moroccan troupe that arrived in Moscow in 1912. By 1916, he had made his way to Almaty and joined a circus troupe run by Alexander Sosin. Following the Russian Revolution and the start of the civil war, he joined the Red Army and served in one of the international cavalry units under the divisional command of Vasily Chapayev.

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1923	Red Devils	Tom Jackson
1926	Savur-Mohyla	Tom Jackson		Sequel to Red Devils
1926	The Crime of Shirvanskaya	Tom Jackson		Sequel to Savur-Mohyla
1926	The Punishment of Shirvanskaya	Tom Jackson		Sequel to The Crime of Shirvanskaya
1926	Ilan-dili	Tom Jackson		Sequel to The Punishment of Shirvanskaya
1927	Mr Lloyd's Voyage	Footman	Dmitri Bassalygo
1931	Black Skin	Tom
1932	The Return of Nathan Becker	Jim