BoxRec

Like the famous line from Forest Gump, Canada Lee’s life was “like a box of chocolates.” He never knew what flavor he would get. He was a musician, a jockey, a restaurateur, an actor, and a civil rights activist. He made headlines, and history, as an actor. He was the first African-American to play a white character on Broadway. He was the first African-American producer on Broadway as well as the first African-American actor to perform in white face. He demanded and forced directors, like Alfred Hitchcock, to remove stereotypical dialogue; no “yessuh’s” for him. He was a prominent activist who spoke out against racism every chance he got. That all changed when he became a victim of the “Hollywood Blacklist.” Called a “red” and labeled a communist during the height of McCarthyism, Canada Lee was forgotten. But before all of that, he was one heck of a boxer. A boxer Ring magazine called the “Sugar Ray of his day.”

http://www.fightbeat.com/article_detail.php?AT=536

....actually too many loonies in the country were suckers for the right wing demagogues and the nuts who believed them in the mccarthy witch hunting days, and many lives were ruined by them. john garfield himself , one of the great actors films have seen had his career taken away, which may have led to his early demise.

at least we have these two actors together on film in the great boxing movie "body and soul"..