Rodd Redwing (August 24, 1904 – May 29, 1971) was born Webb Richardson on August 24, 1904 in Tennessee, USA. His father, Ulysses William Richardson (b. 1873), was Black and was an elevator man from Tennessee. His mother, Lillian Webb (b. 1878), was also Black and worked as a manicurist and hairdresser. Lillian divorced her husband William in 1920. Their son Webb moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and appeared in the 1929 musical "Malinda" in Greenwich Village with a cast of African American performers. Webb later changed his birthname to Redwing, adopted a Native American identity, and changed his birthplace to New York City. Some sources reported that he used the Hindu-sounding name Roderick Rajpurkaii Jr. and said his father was a Brahmin mind reader from India.