Donald Bogle

Donald Bogle, one of the foremost authorities on African Americans in film, is the prize-winning author of ten books, including the iconic Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, now in its fifth edition and recently selected by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 100 Best Books written about the movies—and by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 50 Best books about the movies.   

He has also written the critically acclaimed biographies Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography (which is credited with the re-discovery of this great African American star) and Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters; the social history Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood, which looks at the early years of African Americans in Los Angeles as they struggled to make a place for themselves in the film industry; and Brown Sugar: Over One Hundred Years of America’s Black Female Superstars which Mr. Bogle adapted into a four-part documentary series for PBS.   

Turner Classic Movies published Bogle’s biography Lena Horne: Goddess Reclaimed. The company also published his book Hollywood Black, which features a foreword by the late filmmaker John Singleton and was adapted as a four part docu-series by Justin Simien, which recently won the Independent Spirit Award as Best Documentary of the Year.  Bogle also is a frequent commentator on TCM and was also the 2023 recipient of the Robert Osborne Award, TCM’s highest honor.  He presently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.