From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sam Lucas was an American actor, comedian, singer, and songwriter. His year of birth, to freed former slaves, is disputed, and has been cited, in addition to 1848, as 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1850. Lucas' career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of the first African Americans to branch out into more serious drama, with roles in seminal works such as The Creole Show and A Trip to Coontown. He was the first black man to portray the role of ...