Movie Posters - 1960s
Poster
I Passed for White is a 1960 film directed and adapted for the screen from a novel of the same name by Reba Lee, "as told to" Mary Hastings Bradley. The film stars Sonya Wilde, James Franciscus, Patricia Michon, and Isabel Cooley. None of those names is familiar to me...
In the movie, a young African American woman living in Chicago with her family, travels to New York and starts a new life as a white woman. She meets and marries the man of her dreams (a wealthy white man) - only she hasn't told him she isn't who she appears to be.
Anyone seen this? I couldn't find any info on the star, Sonya Wilde - specifically, whether she has any African roots, since she is playing the role of an African American woman.
poster
I Passed for White is a 1960 film directed and adapted for the screen from a novel of the same name by Reba Lee, "as told to" Mary Hastings Bradley. The film stars Sonya Wilde, James Franciscus, Patricia Michon, and Isabel Cooley. None of those names is familiar to me...
In the movie, a young African American woman living in Chicago with her family, travels to New York and starts a new life as a white woman. She meets and marries the man of her dreams (a wealthy white man) - only she hasn't told him she isn't who she appears to be.
Anyone seen this? I couldn't find any info on the star, Sonya Wilde - specifically, whether she has any African roots, since she is playing the role of an African American woman.
poster
Never heard of this flick. But James Franciscus was a TV star in the '70s. He played a blind private eye in a show called "Longstreet."
I looked it up on Amazon and Netflix. It's available on both sites. It's now on my Netflix cue.
PLEASE review after seeing!
Will do. Should get it by Friday, this week.
i'm actually watching the film now. and like you I am wondering if Ms. Sonya Wilde actually had any African decent or even ethnic decent AND why no where on the 'World Wide Web' is there a bio on Ms. Wilde. My guess is because she was in fact NOT of African ancestry. Why else would she be 'black listed' beyond all accessible record? I will be making a trip to the library to see what I can find out.
~Driven By Curiosity
As I suspected, Sonya Wilde was/is white. The book, 'Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks' by Donald Bugle (pg 192) confirms it. Think she was blacklisted for the role? I do. She had a few guest spots on Bonanza and Perry Mason before she filmed 'I Passed for White' and after that, nothing.
I am her cousin. She is part Cherokee Indian. She didn't stay in the business that long because of her husband.