Film studio · Public domain

Born Asa Yoelson, Jolson starred in The Jazz Singer (1927), the film that brought synchronised dialogue and song to Hollywood and ended the silent era. Billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer", he was among the best-paid stars of the 1910s and 20s, and after Pearl Harbor became the first star to entertain American troops overseas, later doing the same in Korea weeks before his death. His performing style relied heavily on blackface, a practice now rightly criticised, and for which he is remembered as one of its most prominent practitioners.