Paul Robeson (1898-1976), one of the 20th Century's most commanding personalities, would have celebrated his 105th birthday on April 9. The son of a Presbyterian minister who had been a slave, Robeson was born in Princeton, N.J. After winning a scholarship to Rutgers University, he attended Columbia University's law school, distinguishing himself as both a scholar and an athlete who excelled in baseball, basketball, football and track.

Robeson turned his back on a career in law when personally chosen by Eugene O'Neill to star in his plays All God's Chillun and The Emperor Jones. Robeson repeats the latter stage triumph in the 1933 film version, creating a chilling portrait of a Pullman porter who escapes from a chain gang to become the power-mad ruler of a Caribbean island.

Robeson sang to great acclaim on the concert stage of the U.S. and Europe, and performed his uniquely powerful version of "Ol' Man River" in the film Show Boat (1936). In Jericho (1937), Robeson plays a court-martialed American officer who is sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit and escapes to the African desert, where he becomes the leader of a large tribe and raises a family before being hunted down by a fellow officer. In King Solomon's Mines (1937) he memorably plays Umbopa, the intrepid native guide who leads an expedition through the wilds of Africa.

Robeson, whose Broadway triumphs also included Othello, became a controversial figure in the 1940s and '50s because of his sympathies with leftist causes and had his passport revoked by the U.S. government. Although living in obscure seclusion at the time of his death at age 77, he has remained a symbol of black consciousness and pride.

The following films will be shown in Paul Robeson's birthday tribute on TCM: The Emperor Jones (1933) - this is the U.S. premiere of the Library of Congress restoration, Show Boat (1936), Jericho (1937) and King Solomon's Mines (1937).