Maceo Bruce Sheffield

Biography

Maceo Sheffield was a Los Angeles based actor who appeared in the majority of race films made in California, not only did he appear in many of them, he produced and wrote many of them. Because of his girth, size, and imposing features Maceo was excellent at playing villains and tough, intimidating men. Before his acting days, Maceo was already very well known around Los Angeles, he was considered quite a character who some feared, so maybe the fearsome characters on screen he portrayed was art imitating life. Maceo was a police detective of high ranking in the 1920's and early 1930's but unscrupulous incidents surrounding him possibly ended his career as a policeman. In the mid-1930s, he ventured into show business as an actor, producer, then he owned and ran quite a few nightclubs along Central Avenue, an area of Los Angeles that was migrated by a black population. He always lived as big as he was, some of his other ventures included being a commercial pilot as well. Maceo Sheffield was a larger then life figure who was very memorable to the Los Angeles community and to movie audiences. In the movies Maceo Sheffield played men you love to hate and he loved playing such villains, he always played the tough guy roles with an believable force, but never one to be overly dramatic, Maceo had the gift of making you believe he was a bad guy without overacting, and he showed he was a versatile actor by playing characters that could be likable and humorous like in "Lucky Ghost" and "Look Out Sister." Quite a few of the films he starred in are available to enjoy Maceo Sheffield's talent. There are books that include tidbits about Maceo Sheffield and his significance in the then prosperous 1930s and 1940s Black Los Angeles, the titles are The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America, and Buck Clayton's Jazz World.