He became known for his role as an African American paralegal and law student who is falsely accused of manslaughter by a white woman in the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life in 1942.

[4][circular reference] Anderson attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.[5] and later earned a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University.

Bette Davis had arranged Anderson's interview for the part of Parry Clay in that film.

[citation needed][7] He served briefly in the Army at the end of World War II.

[citation needed][8] This article about a United States film actor born in the 1910s is a stub.