# Who are the darkest-skinned US celebrities? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770 "2006-07-24T02:43:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/21 "2006-07-24T10:09:39Z")
[Henry Cele](http://www.sohoblues.com/solidgoldportraits/previewpages/preview2.jpg) doesn’t count, does he? Well, technically, Djimon Hounsou might not, either. Or Seal. But what the heck. How about Joe Morton, Dr. Dyson himself from _Terminator 2_; or Brock Peters, noted Star Trek actor (that, and I think he was in some movie with Gregory Peck…I think it was _Moby Dick_)? Or maybe [Geoffrey Holder](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390305/)? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/22 "2006-07-24T10:26:37Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] [Henry Cele](http://www.sohoblues.com/solidgoldportraits/previewpages/preview2.jpg) doesn’t count, does he? Well, technically, Djimon Hounsou might not, either. Or Seal. But what the heck. [/QUOTE] If the OP wants US born celebs then Chiwetel Ejiofor is out too and don’t none of you try to claim [Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje](http://www.imdb.com/gallery/hh/0015382/HH/0015382/iid_999069.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Akinnuoye-Agbaje,%20Adewale) either 😉 ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/23 "2006-07-24T10:30:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] …Brock Peters…Gregory Peck…I think it was _Moby Dick_?.. [/QUOTE] [_To Kill a Mockingbird_ !](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/) CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/24 "2006-07-24T10:40:08Z")
[QUOTE=Kat] Deciding to look into politics, because I haven’t seen a picture of him in quite a while, I checked out [Barack Obama](http://obama.senate.gov/newsroom/) but he’s not that dark-looking…there, anyway. [/QUOTE] Nope, he’s not very dark. His father was from Kenya, sure, but his mother was an American of white European descent. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/25 "2006-07-24T11:33:30Z")
George Hamilton. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/26 "2006-07-24T12:50:34Z")
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/27 "2006-07-24T12:53:53Z")
[Richard Roundtree](http://www.cfhf.net/lyrics/images/shaft-richard-roundtree.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/28 "2006-07-24T13:05:30Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] George Hamilton. [/QUOTE] My man wins the thread! ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/29 "2006-07-24T13:09:24Z")
[Notorious BIG](http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/notorious_big/flipbooks.jhtml) [Martin Lawrence](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001454/) > [@](#): > > Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bill Cosby? They aren’t particularly dark at all Oprah Winfrey I guess it’s just a matter of opinion, because they’re all dark in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/30 "2006-07-24T13:25:54Z")
The actor who plays [this guy](http://home.comcast.net/~page.jason/avatars/nibbler.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/31 "2006-07-24T13:36:00Z")
Seal isn’t American, but was popular here in, what, the early 90’s? Also, he’s a celebrity you often see in magazines at parties and such with his wife. He’s quite dark. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/32 "2006-07-24T13:54:38Z")
A very dark-skinned comic, I believe it was A.J. Jamal, had a bit where he said that he’d heard that in the days of slavery, the lighter-skinned slaves were the ones who worked in or near the main house, while the darker slaves worked farthest from the house. So, he said, “my people must’ve been two feet from freedom.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/33 "2006-07-24T14:56:07Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] I hope this thread isn’t found sketchy-- definitely not my intent. [/QUOTE] Good heavens. A slang use of sketchy I’ve never heard before, though [url=“[Urban Dictionary: sketchy](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sketchy)”]Urban Dictionary [/quote] shows it in a number of contexts. When did this start? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/34 "2006-07-24T14:57:32Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Good heavens. A slang use of sketchy I’ve never heard before, though [Urban Dictionary](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sketchy) shows it in a number of contexts. When did this start? [/QUOTE] Every single time I don’t preview. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/35 "2006-07-24T15:05:02Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Good heavens. A slang use of sketchy I’ve never heard before, though [url=“[Urban Dictionary: sketchy](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sketchy)”]Urban Dictionary [/quote] shows it in a number of contexts. When did this start? [/QUOTE] Which use haven’t you heard? Is it sketchy, as in a bad feeling, like “that neighborhood’s a bit sketchy”? If so, I’ve only heard sketchy in that context, at least since the early 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/36 "2006-07-24T15:16:23Z")
No love for [Grace Jones](http://www.sohojournal.com/Pictures/Photos/Grace-Jones.jpg)? I dunno how US she is, and she might not be quite a celebrity, but Sudanese born supermodel [Alek Wek](http://www.fashiongates.com/magazine/Alek-Wek-19-04-05-50011.html) is probably the darkest-skinned female with any serious media presence. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/37 "2006-07-24T16:13:42Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] My brief mental skim suggests that the cultural block against darker-skinned people attaining celebrity is very real. But now I’m putting it to y’all. [/QUOTE] Hell, even back in the 1950s when racial bias was a lot more open, [Nat King Cole](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.preisvergleich.org/pimages/Nat-King-Cole-The-Legend-Live-On_92__4730550_20.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.preisvergleich.org/produktsuche/nat_d933df149c62be04ea54d3a9bfb0372c/&h=500&w=348&sz=14&hl=en&start=68&tbnid=G9yoGEVcFjvjoM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNat%2BKing%2BCole%26start%3D60%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN) was popular enough to get his own network TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/38 "2006-07-24T16:19:19Z")
So do all these examples mean we’re not as racist as the OP thought we were…? Seems to me the light-skinned bias might only effect black women more, but even there we have a couple of counter-examples. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/39 "2006-07-24T16:48:00Z")
Ben Vereen and Wayne Brady. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770/40 "2006-07-24T17:14:38Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] Hell, even back in the 1950s when racial bias was a lot more open, [Nat King Cole](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.preisvergleich.org/pimages/Nat-King-Cole-The-Legend-Live-On_92__4730550_20.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.preisvergleich.org/produktsuche/nat_d933df149c62be04ea54d3a9bfb0372c/&h=500&w=348&sz=14&hl=en&start=68&tbnid=G9yoGEVcFjvjoM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNat%2BKing%2BCole%26start%3D60%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN) was popular enough to get his own network TV show. [/QUOTE] As was [Hattie McDaniel.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0567408/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-darkest-skinned-us-celebrities/365770.md?page=3)