Tommy Davidson

Tommy Davidson came out of stand-up and into the original cast of In Living Color, which in 1990 was the most dangerous comedy show on American television and a very hard room in which to stand out. He stood out by being the best physical comedian on it, an impressionist with a dancer's timing who could carry a sketch on how he moved before he had said a word.

The screen career that followed mostly wanted the same energy in smaller containers: Rushon in Booty Call, a supporting turn in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and years of broad comedies including Juwanna Mann and Woo. He led network sitcoms too, on Malcolm & Eddie and Between Brothers, and became a fixture of family animation as the voice of Oscar Proud across The Proud Family, its 2005 film and the 2022 revival, a run of more than twenty years in one role.

The two performances that argue for him as a serious actor sit apart from all of that. In Spike Lee's Bamboozled he plays Womack, a struggling performer who takes a job on a modern minstrel show and blacks up as Sleep'n Eat, and Davidson plays the self-disgust underneath the routine without ever letting the routine's professionalism slip. Then Cream Corn in Black Dynamite and its animated series, a broad and very funny creation that works only because he commits to it without reservation.