'Bronze Buckeroo' Western star dies

Herb Jeffries, the jazz singer and actor who performed in a series of all-black Western movies in the 1930s, has died at the age of 100.

Known to cinema audiences as the Bronze Buckaroo, he starred in four cowboy films aimed at black audiences from 1937 to 1939. In 1940, Jeffries scored a big hit with jazz legend Duke Ellington as the vocalist on Flamingo. He died of heart failure on Sunday, his biographer Raymond Strait said.

Born Umberto Valentino in Detroit in 1913, he said of his mixed parentage: "My mother was Irish, my father was Sicilian and one of my great-grandparents was Ethiopian.

As a Western star, Jeffries appeared as Bob Blake alongside his horse Stardusk and the vocal group the Four Tones. At a time when mixed race performers tried to lighten their skin, Jeffries wore make-up to darken his. Jeffries continued performing as a singer into his 90s. His last album was The Duke and I, released in 2000. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.

Married five times, including to burlesque star Tempest Storm, Jeffries is survived his fifth wife Savannah, three daughters and two sons.