Williams, [Egbert Austin] Bert (1874–1922), comic actor. The greatest of African‐American comedians and one of the finest of all comics, he was born in the West Indies and was brought to the United States while still a youngster. Williams played for a time in minstrelsy, then in 1895 joined with George Walker (d. 1911) to form an act in which Walker played the sharp‐dealing dandy and Williams his downtrodden patsy who dressed shabbily, walked with a slow shuffle, and had a lugubrious delivery that often packed a hidden punch. Together they appeared in four Broadway shows: The Gold Bug (1896), In Dahomey (1903), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandanna Land (1908). At a time when racial bigotry was rampant even among leading drama critics, Theatre Magazine proclaimed him “a vastly funnier man than any white comedian now on the American stage.” After Walker's death from paresis, Williams appeared in Mr. Lode of Koal (1909) and in eight editions of the Ziegfeld Follies, beginning in 1910. He was also popular in vaudeville and was identified with such songs as “Nobody” and “The Darktown Poker Club.” Although he was an intelligent, handsome, light‐skinned man, he was forced to black up for his appearances and was never permitted to abandon the stereotypical black he portrayed so hilariously. Biography: Nobody: The Story of Bert Williams, Ann Charters, 1970.

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.