Archie Savage

Archie Savage (April 19, 1914 – February 14, 2003) was an American dancer, choreographer, and actor whose career spanned Broadway, film, and concert dance. Born and raised in New York, he developed an interest in dancing during his years as a public school student in the city. He went on to become a recognized figure in African-American modern dance, working across multiple performance disciplines over several decades.

Savage's connection to the dance world extended to a sustained professional partnership with Katherine Dunham. He served as a partner in her dance company for a number of years and was among the instructors who taught the Dunham Technique at her school. His work with Dunham also brought him to film: he appeared alongside her in the 1941 American short Carnival of Rhythm. Three years later he was featured as a dancer in Jammin' the Blues, a 1944 short film about jazz produced as part of the Melody Master series. The Archie Savage Dancers additionally appear in The Glenn Miller Story, with the group credited in the film; in one scene they are shown performing to "Tuxedo Junction" on a screen inside a recording studio while the band records the song.

His Broadway career ran from 1936 to 1949 and included productions across both dramatic and musical forms. Stage credits included the play Lysistrata, the musical Cabin in the Sky, Haiti, Dr. Faustus, and Beggar's Holiday, among other productions.

Savage continued working in film through the 1950s and into the 1970s, accumulating a range of international credits. In 1954 he appeared in two American films: the adventure film His Majesty O'Keefe, in which he played Boogulroo, and the Western Vera Cruz, where he portrayed a cutthroat gunslinger. In 1960 he took the role of space station pilot Al in the Italian science fiction film Space-Men, making him among the earliest Black men to portray an astronaut on screen. That same year, Julius Ongewe appeared in a similar role in the East German and Polish production The Silent Star. Savage's later film work included the Italian Spaghetti Western Death Rides a Horse in 1967, in which he played Vigro; the Italian-Spanish crime-action film Bootleggers in 1969, where he appeared as Jeremiah; and the 1970 Italian film Notes Towards an African Orestes, in which he performed as a singer.