Noble Johnson


Noble Johnson, later known as Mark Noble, was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in films such as The Mummy, The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong and Son of Kong. He founded Lincoln Motion Picture Company.

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.
Noble was good friends with fellow actor Lon Chaney, his schoolmate in Colorado. 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 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, 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, and investing his pay from those films in Lincoln. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company moved to Los Angeles in 1917.
Lincoln's first picture was The Realization of a Negro's Ambition. 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 with Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille's original The Ten Commandments, The Thief of Bagdad, Dante's Inferno and When a Man Loves. He made the transition to sound films, appearing in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu as Li Po, in Moby Dick as Queequeg to John Barrymore's Captain Ahab, and in the Boris Karloff film The Mummy as "the Nubian". He was also the Native Chief on Skull Island in the classic King Kong and appeared in Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon as one of the porters. One of his later films was John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 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

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