Ena Hartman
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Ena Hartman was an African American model and actress from Arkansas known for small roles in film and television during the 1960s. Hartman’s unprecedented development deal with NBC made her the first African American actor to have a contract with a major television network.
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Ena Hartman was born on April 1, 1935, in Moscow, Arkansas, a few miles southeast of Pine Bluff, to sharecroppers. She was raised by her grandparents until she was thirteen, when she moved to Buffalo, New York, to live with her mother. She later dropped out of high school to open a restaurant to fund her dream of moving to New York City and becoming a model. After being rejected by a modeling agency, she was discovered by a photographer in the lobby of that modeling agency. She began landing modeling jobs and studying drama with Josh Shelley, an actor known for All the President’s Men, and Lloyd Richards, an actor and theater director known for staging the original production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.
In the early 1960s, she garnered the attention of NBC’s vice president of talent relations after excelling in an NBC-sponsored talent competition for young actors and actresses. As a result, NBC extended her talent contract so that she could later appear in NBC programs after she was appropriately trained and developed. By signing this contract with NBC, Hartman became the first African American to have a contract with a major television network. In 1962, she appeared on the cover of magazine entitled "Ex Model Grooms for TV Debut,” with a featured story about her unprecedented deal with NBC.
In 1964, she again appeared on the cover of Jet magazine with Lorne Greene after making her debut on Bonanza. In 1965, she played minor roles in a historical anthology television series, Profiles in Courage, based on a Pulitzer-prize-winning book written by President John F. Kennedy. In 1966, she appeared in a spy comedy that parodied the James Bond film, Our Man Flint. In 1966, she left NBC behind and appeared in the television movie Fame is the Name of the Game. Later, in an episode of Star Trek entitled, “The Corbomite Maneuver,” she briefly appeared as a crew member on The Enterprise. In 1966, she also appeared in the television series Tarzan starring Ron Ely. In 1967, she appeared in the psychological thriller Games, starring James Caan of later Godfather fame.
From 1967 to 1969, Hartman appeared in the popular television crime drama Ironside. In 1968, she appeared in Prescription Murder, starring Peter Falk in his debut as Columbo. That same year, she also appeared in television shows such as Adam 12 and It Takes a Thief. She almost landed co-starring alongside Elvis Presley in Change of Habit but lost to actress Barbara McNair.
Hartman was personally approved by Dorothy Dandridge to star as the actress in a biopic about Dandridge’s life co-starring Sidney Poitier, the most popular actor in Hollywood at the time. Unfortunately, Hartman’s breakout role was not to be as Poitier pulled in the final stages of the project.
In 1970, Hartman had a small role as a flight attendant in the box-office hit film Airport. In 1970, she graced the cover of Jet magazine once again, in a story entitled “TV’s Top Roles for Black Actresses.” Soon after, she played police dispatcher Katy Grant for two seasons, becoming a regular on the detective drama television series Dan August, starring Burt Reynolds from 1970 to 1971. In 1973, after Dan August had ended, she played Carmen Simms in the movie Terminal Island, starring Tom Selleck. In 1980, three television movies were created by cutting together episodes of Dan August. Unfortunately, by that time, Hartman had retired from the movie industry.
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Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard
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