Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson

In the meantime, Amos and Andy depicted African-Americans in more typical working class and professional roles. He also had success on the stage, in particular with The Bespoke Overcoat which was filmed in 1956. That said, Anderson was playing a servant, as with other shows with African-American leads, such as Ethel Waters in Beulah. Both series were very popular in Britain. Benny's call of "Rochester," and Anderson's answers (often a raspy "Yes, Boss," but just as often a snappy joke at Benny's expense) were among the weekly highlights of the show, and some newspapers reportedly listed the show as The Eddie Anderson Show, with Benny relegated to a secondary role (this despite the show's opening title being repeated each week by announcer Don Wilson). comedy series of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then co-starred in its sequel Bootsie and Snudge as a tramp with Bill Fraser and Clive Dunn. Anderson was as responsible as was Benny for the show's tremendous success across so many segments of American society, and the relationship between Anderson and Benny became more complex and intimate as the years went by. He starred in The Army Game a British T.V.

(Anderson was of course not Benny's butler in real life, as many listeners of the time apparently thought in somewhat condescending fashion.) Anderson was also well-known for his role in the groundbreaking musical film, Cabin in the Sky. He sometimes emphasised his Jewish background in the accent he used on screen. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (September 18, 1905 - February 28, 1977) was an African-American comic actor and star of movies, television and especially old-time radio, where he played the butler Rochester to Jack Benny's eponymous title character on The Jack Benny Show. series Till Death Us Do Part and Are You Being Served?. He continued working until the turn of the 1980s and had roles in the T.V. Among his most often seen films (by modern audiences), are The Lavender Hill Mob and A Tale Of Two Cities.

He also died in London in 1987. Often seen in classic British films Alfie Bass was a small cockney-accented actor, born in London's Bethnal Green in 1920.