Columbia, Missouri, USA | 1926-10-18 | 2013-01-14

In the early 1950s, just as opportunities were opening up for African American actors to play more dignified film roles, Temple Hatton seemed poised to be a beneficiary of that emerging trend. At the time, he was making a name for himself on the stage in Santa Barbara, California. Unfortunately, Hollywood was not interested in casting a light-complexed African American in these new roles. Unlike Frank Silvera, and Noble Johnson before him, Hatton was not given the opportunity to play other ethnic roles either. Besides a small role in the ironically titled, "I Passed for White" (1960) and a prominent, but uncredited role in the fact-based dramatic short, "An Epistle from the Koreans," Hatton couldn't secure acting gigs in Hollywood. Hatton quit acting in the mid-1960s and found work behind the scenes. From 1968 to 1986, he worked as censor for NBC.