Stepin Fetchit

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday for Lincoln Perry, the black actor known as Stepin Fetchit in films. After the Mass in St. Agatha's Catholic Church at 5066 W. Adams Blvd., Perry will be buried at Calvary Cemetery. His survivors include a son, Jemajo, and a sister, Marie Carter. Perry's second wife, Bernice, died this year at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills where Perry died at age 83 Tuesday.

There's a comedian I really like ? Brad Williams. He's a so-called little person, which is the phrase. He's a real heavyweight, a smart person with big heart. Watch for him ? really, really funny. He could do for the so-called little person, dwarfs, what Richard Pryor did for Stepin Fetchit. He breaks all the barriers down. He just gets up there and says, 'Look at me ? these are my little arms.' He's really funny. Real smart. He's real special. ?As told to Deborah Vankin

Stepin Fetchit, the black comedian who became a Hollywood star in the 1930s by playing lazy, slow-moving, easily frightened characters, died Tuesday of heart failure and pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was 93. Fetchit, born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, came to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a small fortune portraying shuffling, idle men who rolled their eyes in fright and ignorance at the complexities of the world.

Ice Cube's transformation from gangsta bad to suburb dad proves Hollywood stereotyping continues to diminish us all, offering little to the imagination of young African Americans seeking substantive role models ["PG As He Wanna Be," April 5]. Cube ain't nuthin' but a postmodern Stepin Fetchit whose rhymes, and comic lines, lack any true resonance. TOM CROCKER Los Angeles

Stepin Fetchit, whose portrayals of lazy, stereotypical black characters in numerous films made him one of the most controversial actors in Hollywood for three decades, will be examined this weekend with panel discussions, a one-man show and other events.

Ice Cube's transformation from gangsta bad to suburb dad proves Hollywood stereotyping continues to diminish us all, offering little to the imagination of young African Americans seeking substantive role models ["PG As He Wanna Be," April 5]. Cube ain't nuthin' but a postmodern Stepin Fetchit whose rhymes, and comic lines, lack any true resonance. TOM CROCKER Los Angeles

Is Lee seriously saying that "Francis Ford Coppola being Italian-American definitely enhanced the 'Godfather' films. Same thing with Martin Scorsese with 'Mean Streets' "? I'm afraid Lee's admiration is misplaced. What these directors depict is a politically correct Hollywood cartoon of their own ethnic group straight out of the Stepin Fetchit era. If either director made non-stereotypical and positive films about Italian-Americans, their value in the eyes of the bigoted moguls they work for would cease.

A number of readers have written to suggest additions to "Final Bow , " the Dec. 24 list of celebrities who died during the 1980s. Here are those names, plus the many that had been deleted from the list because of space limitation: Alvin Ailey, Fran Allison, Adele Astaire, Chet Baker, Brook Benton, Amanda Blake, John Bonham, Adolph Caesar, Graham Chapman, James Coco, Jackie Coogan, Dennis Day, Bob Eberly, Bill Evans, Marty Feldman,...

There's a comedian I really like ? Brad Williams. He's a so-called little person, which is the phrase. He's a real heavyweight, a smart person with big heart. Watch for him ? really, really funny. He could do for the so-called little person, dwarfs, what Richard Pryor did for Stepin Fetchit. He breaks all the barriers down. He just gets up there and says, 'Look at me ? these are my little arms.' He's really funny. Real smart. He's real special. ?As told to Deborah Vankin

The article "Attuned to Rap's Power to Provoke" (by Eric Harrison, April 10) mentions how white filmmakers increasingly are embracing rap music. It seems, though, that instead of being innovative, this trend is a slight variation of how blacks have been depicted since the beginning of film. Portrayals of blacks have either shown them as dangerous, oversexed felons or as hapless buffoons. The trend of some white filmmakers to depict rap culture as synonymous with the range of the black human experience is ultimately just as harmful to the development of good role models in the black community as was any Stepin Fetchit caricature in the era of black-and-white movies.

Stepin Fetchit, whose portrayals of lazy, stereotypical black characters in numerous films made him one of the most controversial actors in Hollywood for three decades, will be examined this weekend with panel discussions, a one-man show and other events.

The article "Attuned to Rap's Power to Provoke" (by Eric Harrison, April 10) mentions how white filmmakers increasingly are embracing rap music. It seems, though, that instead of being innovative, this trend is a slight variation of how blacks have been depicted since the beginning of film. Portrayals of blacks have either shown them as dangerous, oversexed felons or as hapless buffoons. The trend of some white filmmakers to depict rap culture as synonymous with the range of the black human experience is ultimately just as harmful to the development of good role models in the black community as was any Stepin Fetchit caricature in the era of black-and-white movies.

Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, John Coltrane, Alice Walker. . . . There are many gifted and inspirational African American figures who are clearly deserving of praise and recognition. But Wednesday night's episode of "The Parent 'Hood" asks viewers to consider the worthiness of a group of black pioneers whose contributions are far less obvious: the early African American film actors.

Is Lee seriously saying that "Francis Ford Coppola being Italian-American definitely enhanced the 'Godfather' films. Same thing with Martin Scorsese with 'Mean Streets' "? I'm afraid Lee's admiration is misplaced. What these directors depict is a politically correct Hollywood cartoon of their own ethnic group straight out of the Stepin Fetchit era. If either director made non-stereotypical and positive films about Italian-Americans, their value in the eyes of the bigoted moguls they work for would cease.

A number of readers have written to suggest additions to "Final Bow , " the Dec. 24 list of celebrities who died during the 1980s. Here are those names, plus the many that had been deleted from the list because of space limitation: Alvin Ailey, Fran Allison, Adele Astaire, Chet Baker, Brook Benton, Amanda Blake, John Bonham, Adolph Caesar, Graham Chapman, James Coco, Jackie Coogan, Dennis Day, Bob Eberly, Bill Evans, Marty Feldman,...

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday for Lincoln Perry, the black actor known as Stepin Fetchit in films. After the Mass in St. Agatha's Catholic Church at 5066 W. Adams Blvd., Perry will be buried at Calvary Cemetery. His survivors include a son, Jemajo, and a sister, Marie Carter. Perry's second wife, Bernice, died this year at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills where Perry died at age 83 Tuesday.

Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, John Coltrane, Alice Walker. . . . There are many gifted and inspirational African American figures who are clearly deserving of praise and recognition. But Wednesday night's episode of "The Parent 'Hood" asks viewers to consider the worthiness of a group of black pioneers whose contributions are far less obvious: the early African American film actors.

Matthew T. Robinson Jr., an original cast member on television's "Sesame Street" and longtime writer for "The Cosby Show," died at his Los Angeles home Monday after a 20-year battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 65. He entered show business as a writer and later producer and on-air talent at WCAU-TV in his native Philadelphia in the early 1960s. He joined "Sesame Street" in 1969 as a producer.

Stepin Fetchit, the black comedian who became a Hollywood star in the 1930s by playing lazy, slow-moving, easily frightened characters, died Tuesday of heart failure and pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was 93. Fetchit, born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, came to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a small fortune portraying shuffling, idle men who rolled their eyes in fright and ignorance at the complexities of the world.