Eddie Smith Confronted Stuntman Blackface

While working as an extra on the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Eddie Smith saw a white stuntman being darkened with makeup to double Black actor Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Smith asked director Stanley Kramer why he had not hired a Black stuntman, and Kramer reportedly replied, "Well, find me one." The encounter inspired Smith to recruit and train Black performers, and in 1967 he co-founded the Black Stuntmen's Association.

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