Orphaned at an early age he ended up in Brazil where he joined a circus as an acrobat. Never having any formal education he taught himself to read and write in several languages. Besides the circus he worked in vaudeville and minstrel shows. Studying Shakespeare he developed perfect diction enabling him to become a radio voice actor. His first Broadway show was Showboat in 1927.

After making a few all black films with Oscar Micheaux he received recognition for his first mainstream film in 1949, Intruder in the Dust based on a Faulkner story. His performance as Lucas Beauchamp, the poor southern sharecropper unjustly accused of murder. The performance received great praise and most thought he deserved an Oscar nomination if not the award itself.

The thing that made him stand out is that he never took any roles that he felt were demeaning or stereotyped. Among his other roles were the jazz musician in Young Man with a Horn, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, The Pawnbroker and Trial in which he played a judge. For an African-American to be given a role as a judge in 1955 was no small event.