'The funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew.' This is how W.C.
Fields described Bert Williams, the highest-paid entertainer in America in his
heyday and someone who counted the King of England and Buster Keaton among his f
ans. Born in the Bahamas, he moved to California with his family.
Too poor to
attend Stanford University, he took to life on the stage with his friend George
Walker. Together they played lumber camps and mining towns until they eventuall
y made the agonising decision to 'play the coon'. Off-stage, Williams was a tall
, light-skinned man with marked poise and dignity; on-stage he now became a shuf
fling, inept 'nigger' who wore blackface make-up.
