10 Worst Examples Of Hollywood Whitewashing

One of cinema history’s more cringeworthy moments. We can’t fault Laurence Olivier’s love of Shakespeare, but while his Hamlet and Richard III may go down as classics, everyone involved probably regretted this one a few years down the line.

The reason for that, unfortunately, is that Olivier decides to play the Moor of Venice in blackface. That’s full-on minstrel black, not just a lick of brown. He completes the effect with some bright red around the insides of his lips, a curly black wig, and by mangling Shakespeare’s dialogue in a vaguely foreign accent.

And this is for a story about the racism faced by the central character – though you’ll hardly pick up any of the plot if you watch it today, for you’ll be covering your eyes and ears as much as possible.

Olivier may not have been the first actor to black up to play Othello, but this release came out at the height of the Civil Rights movement, and shortly after Sidney Poitier had become the first black man to win a Best Actor Oscar, meaning he was, thankfully, one of the last.