Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse,[1] he studied at Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for one year in 1908.

[2] While with the Lafayette Players, Muse worked under the management of producer Robert Levy on productions that helped black actors to gain prominence and respect.

Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also wrote songs, plays, and sketches.

[citation needed] He was the major star in The Broken Earth (1936), which related the story of a black sharecropper whose son miraculously recovers from fever through the father's fervent prayer.

[5] Muse performed in Broken Strings (1940), as a concert violinist who opposes the desire of his son to play "swing".

[7] From 1955 to 1956, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist (a part he had been considered for in the original Warner Brothers film).