Hyman, (George) Earle (1926– )

US stage actor. He was most drawn to classic roles, first playing Hamlet in 1951, Othello in productions in several countries, and appearing in ten other roles with the American Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford, Connecticut. Although he would occasionally find parts in the professional New York stage (Mr Johnson (1956), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Pygmalion (1991)) and appeared infrequently in US television and films, he felt that his skin colour denied him a full range of roles in the US theatre and he spent many years acting in Europe, particularly in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark (in their languages). He won the State Award in Oslo, Norway, for instance, for his appearance in Emperor Jones (1965).

Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, he graduated from high school in Brooklyn, New York in 1943, and having joined the American Negro Theatre, he appeared in their first hit, Anna Lucasta in 1944, both on Broadway and in London. He later studied with the Actors Studio in New York.