Bessemer

William Glenn Shadix Scott, born William Glenn Shadix, was an American actor, known for his role as Otho Fenlock in Tim Burton's horror/comedy film... Beetlejuice and the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Shadix was born in Bessemer, and added the surname "Scott" when his mother remarried a few years after his birth. He attended Birmingham-Southern College for two years, studying with absurdist playwright-director Arnold Powell. He lived in New York City prior to moving to Hollywood in the late 1970s. He got his breakthrough film role in Beetlejuice while doing a stage play, portraying Gertrude Stein. Beetlejuice filmmaker Tim Burton went on to cast Shadix in 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. In 2005, Shadix was cast as the voices of the Brain and Monsieur Mallah in season five of the Teen Titans animated series. His other voice work includes the aforementioned Nightmare, and episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures and Justice League Unlimited.
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Edward "Eddie" Levert is an American singer, and is the lead vocalist of the soul/funk/R&B vocal group, The O'Jays. Levert was born in Bessemer,... Alabama, but was raised in Canton, Ohio. While attending high school, he met buddies Walter Williams, Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, and William Powell. They were motivated to sing after seeing a performance from Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. They formed in 1958. The O'Jays were originally known as The Triumphs and The Mascots. They were officially known as The O'Jays after they got their name from DJ Eddie O'Jay. Their first big hit was "Lonely Drifter" which was lifted off their debut album Comin Through. The O'Jays are mainly known by their hits "Back Stabbers," "Love Train" and "For the Love of Money." He starred and performed in the movie and performed the song He Still Loves Me. In 2009, he and his group won the BET Lifetime Achievement Award. Levert is the father of R&B singers Gerald Levert, who died on November 10, 2006, Sean Levert, who died on March 30, 2008 and Eddie Levert Jr., CEO of Levert Entertainment Group, a Music label headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
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Iverson Minter , known as Louisiana Red, was an African American blues guitarist, harmonica player, and singer, who recorded more than 50 albums. He... was best known for his song "Sweet Blood Call". Born in Bessemer, Alabama, United States, Minter lost his parents early in life; His mother died of pneumonia shortly after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan when he was five. He was brought up by a series of relatives in various towns and cities. Red recorded for Chess in 1949, before joining the Army. After leaving the Army, he spent two years in the late 1950s playing with John Lee Hooker in Detroit. He recorded for Checker Records in 1952, billed as Rocky Fuller. His first album, Lowdown Back Porch Blues, was recorded in New York with Tommy Tucker and released in 1963, with second album Seventh Son released later the same year. Louisiana Red released the single "I'm Too Poor To Die" for the Glover label in 1964. It peaked at number 117 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 30 on the Cashbox chart. Billboard did not print a standard R&B chart during 1964.
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Professor Alex Bradford was a multi-talented gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director who was a great influence on artists such as... Little Richard, Bob Marley and Ray Charles and who helped bring about the modern mass choir movement in gospel. Born in Bessemer, Alabama, he first appeared on stage at age four, then joined a children's gospel group at thirteen, soon obtaining his own radio show. He organized another group after his mother sent him to New York City following a racial incident; he continued singing after returning to attend the Snow Hill Institute in Snow Hill, Alabama, where he acquired the title "Professor" while teaching as a student. He moved to Chicago in 1947, where he worked briefly with Roberta Martin and toured with Mahalia Jackson, then struck out on his own with his own group, the Bradford Singers, followed by another group, the Bradford Specials. He recorded his first hit record, "Too Close To Heaven" , billed as Professor Alex Bradford and his singers, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc, then followed it with a number of other successes in the rest of the decade.
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Johnnie Mae Matthews was an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer from Bessemer, Alabama. Known as the “Godmother... of Detroit Soul” and as the first African American female to own and operate her own record label she was an early influence on the careers of many of the now-famous recording stars who began their careers in Detroit, Michigan such as Otis Williams, David Ruffin, and Richard Street of the Temptations, Jimmy Ruffin, Joe Hunter of the Funk Brothers Band, Richard Wylie, Norman Whitfield, Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, Timmy Shaw, Barbara Lewis, Bettye LaVette and many more. Johnnie Mae Matthews was born December 31, 1922, in Bessemer, Alabama. She learned to sing in her church choir, and also performed with her mother at military bases throughout the Deep South. When she was twelve years old, the family relocated to New Jersey, and in 1947 Matthews left her parents home and moved to Detroit, Michigan where she married and started her own family.
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Lou Walker was an actor.