Wes Jenkins (1859-1930) was an American actor active during Hollywood's silent era.
[1][2] He appears in an untitled Biograph film from 1913 that has been dubbed Lime Kiln Field Day; held by MoMA, the seven-reel clip is thought to be the oldest surviving footage of black actors.
[4] He grew up primarily in Pittsburgh, and when he was 14, he dropped out of school to get a job to help his mother and siblings.
[5] He met his wife, Mattie Farrar, while performing in Whalen & Martell's production of The South Before the War; they married in 1898 in Bloomington, Illinois.
Between 1911 and his death, he appeared in films for companies like Vitagraph, Cosmopolitan, Distinctive, Kenmar, Famous Players Lasky, Ralph Ince, David O. Selznick, William Fox, Biograph, and more.