An African Giant Orlando Martins was a pioneering Nigerian film and stage actor and became Nigeria’s first-ever Hollywood actor.
Orlando was a phenomenal actor in early 20th century Britain. He was a regular on ITV in 1958 and starred alongside Ronald Reagan in the Hollywood Epic “The Hasty Heart.”
In the late 1940s, he was one of Britain’s most prominent and leading black actors . In the year 1947, votes were casted for the best actors in England and Orlando Martins came out among the first 15.
Nigerian’s started making movies as far back as the 20th century under colonial rule. Since then, the film industries grew gradually until one amazing Nigerian actor crept out into the lights in the United Kingdom.
The man who was going to make Nigeria proud; Orlando Martins was born on the eight of December 1899 in Lagos. He is a son to a Brazilian father and a Nigerian mother. After the first world war, Orlando relocated to London where he began acting. His first ever theatre job was at the Lyceum Theater where he was trained.
Martins began acting in the 1920s but had to put his career on a hold when the Second World War started. Before then, he featured in a number of movies, one of which is the Sanders of the River. That movie was directed by Alexander Kordastaering and Paul Robinson. During that period, Orlando also worked in Circuses and as a Wrestler.
When World War two was over, Orlando continued his career and that was when he became popular. He featured in a number of movies like Simba in the year 1955, The Hasty Heart in the year 1949, where no Vultures fly in the year 1951, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre and more.
As at the year 1940, Orlando was already well known in England, proof for that was that he was chosen as one of England’s most favorite actors in the year 1945 when the vote was cast.
Orlando didn’t forget home and in the year 1959, he went back to Lagos, Nigeria, were he continued his career. During his stay in Nigeria, he worked with people like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
Orlando Martins lived a long successful life and in the year 1985, he died.
