Top billed cast

1. 

   Roger E. Mosley

   Huddie Ledbetter

2. 

   James Brodhead

   John Lomax

3. 

   John McDonald

   Tom Pruitt

4. 

   Leonard Wrentz

   Guard

5. 

   Ernie Hudson

   Archie

6. 

   Dana Manno

   Margaret Judd

7. 

   William Wintersole

   Sheriff Gibbons

8. 

   Paul Benjamin

   Wes Ledbetter

9. 

   Lynn Hamilton

   Sally Ledbetter

10. View more

Reviews

A review by JPRetana

Written by JPRetana on 2026-06-16

Leadbelly (1976) opens with Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter (Roger E. Mosley) as an old man in prison. By “old” I mean they dyed Mosley’s hair and eyebrows gray, and even “dyed” might be an overstatement. Ledbetter is shirtless when we first meet him, so we can see he’s actually a strapping middle-age man. Perhaps that stuff on his hair is just dust from breaking rocks all day.

Ethnomusicologists John and Alan Lomax come to record Ledbetter playing guitar and singing for the Library of Congress. Ledbetter proceeds to narrate the film in a long flashback. Dude, they asked you f...read the rest

Recommendations

1. Blaze62%
2. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody70%
3. All Eyez on Me67%
4. Cass59%
5. Bessie63%
6. Born to Be Blue65%
7. Hounddog64%
8. Black Snake Moan68%
9. La joven69%
10. Get On Up67%
11. Cadillac Records70%
12. The Doors71%
13. Dalíland59%
14. La Bamba72%
15. Shirley61%
16. The Birth of a Nation65%
17. The Great Debaters72%
18. The Joker is Wild81%
19. Cardboard Boxer63%
20. Effie Gray59%

Status
Released

Original Language
English

Budget
$0.00

Revenue
$0.00

Keywords

• biography
• blues music