Born Crescent Clinton Rosemond, although becoming an actor, he started as a singer. He was in some a capella groups in the Los Angeles area at the turn of the century. In 1919 he became part of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra. During the 1920s the ensemble traveled to London where they performed at Buckingham Palace, and toured Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan. Rosemond then came to be one of the three members of the Royal Southern Singers.

As an actor his first role was as butler in Only the Brave (1930), and had bit uncredited similar parts, including a singing one in Carolina (1934), until he played the Prophet in The Green Pastures (1936), an adaptation of religious stories intended for black audiences. He played the doctor in another "black" film, Cabin in the Sky (1943). Like most of his race fellow actors, he was mainly offered roles of butler, servant or stableman, yet director Mervyn LeRoy praised his work in They Won't Forget (1937) as" the first to play a realistic black role on the screen" and a predecessor to Sidney Poitier and other fine black actors.