Theresa Harris

Abstract

Theresa Harris was a black actor with 103 film credits to her name, three of which are Stanwyck films: Baby Face (1933), Banjo on My Knee (1936), and The File on Thelma Jordan (1949). Despite the paucity of archival evidence of Harris’s career, this chapter speculates on her contribution to Hollywood as a bit player, singer, and character actor. The critical race theory of Christine Goding-Doty suggests that Harris creates racial events through her diverse appearances, marking the lost possibility of a different cinema in which whiteness recedes into the background.