In the late 1920s and '30s Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit, was both renowned and reviled for his surrealistic portrayals of the era s most popular comic stereotype the lazy, shiftless Negro. Perry was hailed by critic Robert Benchley as the best actor that the talking movies have produced, and Mel Watkins s meticulously researched and sensitive biography reveals the paradoxes of this pioneering actor s life, from Perry s tremendous popularity to his money troubles and rowdy offscreen antics. As later generations come to recognize Perry s prodigious talent and achievements, in Stepin...