Later Life
While Perry was the first black actor to become a millionaire, he was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1947, stating assets of $146 (equal to about $1,520 today).
Perry reportedly converted to Islam in the 1960s and became a friend of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Perry also found himself in conflict during his career with civil rights leaders who criticized him personally for the film roles he portrayed. Nonetheless, in 1976 the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP awarded him a Special NAACP Image Award. Two years after that, Perry was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In April 1969, Perry's son, Donald Lambright, traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike shooting people. He injured 15 and killed 3 before turning the gun on himself.
Read more about this topic: Stepin Fetchit
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The extrovert and introvert, the realist and idealist, the scientist and philosopher, the man who found himself by refinding his life history and the individual who discovered his being in fantasy, these are the differences between Freud and Jung.”
—Robert S. Steele. Freud and Jung: Conflicts of Interpretation, ch. 10, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1982)
“His meter was bitter, and ironic and spectacular and inviting: so was life. There wasn’t much other life during those times than to what his pen paid the tribute of poetic tragic glamour and offered the reconciliation of the familiarities of tragedy.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948)