Sir Lancelot

Artist: Sir Lancelot

LP: Calypso

Song: "Chinese Cricket Match"
[ listen ]

Born in Trinidad in 1903, Lancelot Victor Edward Pinard (aka. Sir Lancelot) appeared in a number of Hollywood films in the 1940s and '50s, including the 1948 Doris Day vehicle Romance On the High Seas and 1944's To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. He also appeared in the 1943 Val Lewton horror classic I Walked With a Zombie, where he performed the song "Shame and Scandal In the Family," as you can see here. You can read about Sir Lancelot's life and career here and here and see a list of his other film appearances and read his Los Angeles Times obituary here. In the song I've posted above, Sir Lancelot is having trouble pronouncing the names of the players on a Chinese cricket team—names which, according to the song, derive from the sounds of steel drums.

[ Sir Lancelot: May 24, 1903 — March 12, 2001 ]
[ still from: Curse of the Cat People — 1944 ]