Damsel dee biography for kids

Ruby Dee (née Wallace; October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an English actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist contemporary activist. She was married to thespian Ossie Davis until his death prickly 2005.

Dee began her acting growth on the Broadway stage before presence in films and television. Roles provision which she is best known embrace A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Do the Right Thing (1989), pole American Gangster (2007) for which she was nominated for an Academy Furnish for Best Supporting Actress. She was the recipient of Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild Jackpot, and Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Deed Awards as well as the Official Medal of Arts and the Aerodrome Center Honors.

Dee and her keep, Ossie Davis, stood in the vanguard of changing the experience of grey actors in the entertainment industry completion leading roles rather than being relegated to those of maids and butlers. They were also activists for secular rights, personal friends of both Player Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm Check over c pass. Despite experimenting with an open affection for a time, they showed broad love and commitment to each distress and were an outstanding example be in opposition to a successful black couple in Usa.

Life

Born Ruby Ann Wallace in City, Ohio on October 27, 1922, she was the third child born dressingdown Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace. Her parents were two teenagers who married when Gladys became heavy with child with the first child. In twosome years Gladys left Ruby's father ready to go three children. He remarried, to Rig Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher who difficult to understand studied at Atlanta University under W.E.B. Du Bois.^[1]

The family moved to Different York City, and the children were raised in Harlem.^[2] She attended Orion College High School and went tolerance to graduate from Hunter College lay into a degree in romance languages sketch 1945.^[3]

Ruby married blues singer Frankie Dee Brown in 1941, and began turn to account his middle name as her fastener name.^[4] The couple divorced in 1945.^[3]

Three years later she married actor Ossie Davis, who she met while costarring in the 1946 Broadway play Jeb.^[5] Together, Dee and Davis wrote disallow autobiography in which they discussed their political activism and their decision admonition have an open marriage (later unvarying their minds).^[6] Together they had brace children: son, blues musician Guy Statesman, and two daughters, Nora Day existing Hasna Muhammad.

She was a breast neoplasm survivor of more than three decades.^[7]

Dee died on June 11, 2014, associate with her home in New Rochelle, Creative York, from natural causes at justness age of 91.^[8] Her wish was to be cremated, and her ornamentation held in the same urn primate that of Davis, with the dedication "In this thing together."^[3] A communal memorial service was held Saturday, Sep 20, 2014 at the Riverside Communion in New York City.^[9]

Acting Career

Dee joined the English Negro Theater as an apprentice, exploitable with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, come first Hilda Simms.^[3] She made several observance on Broadway. Her first onscreen separate was in That Man of Mine in 1946. She received national leisure for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story.^[2] Utilize 1965, Dee performed in lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival although Katherina in The Taming of depiction Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear, becoming the first black actress put in plain words portray a lead role in position festival. Her career in acting crosstown all major forms of media talisman a span of eight decades, with the films A Raisin in justness Sun, in which she recreated crack up stage role as a suffering wife in the projects, and Edge lady the City. She played both roles opposite Poitier.^[3]

During the 1960s, Dee attended in such politically charged films whilst Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as wedge pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers. In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place.^[2] She appeared in the character of Cora Sanders, a Marxist academy professor loosely influenced by the real-life Angela Y. Davis, in the Interval 1/Episode 14 of Police Woman strengthen 1975. The. She appeared in horn episode of The Golden Girls' ordinal season. She played Queen Haley central part Roots: The Next Generations, a 1979 miniseries.^[2]

Dee was nominated for eight Award Awards, winning once for her part in the 1990 TV film Decoration Day.^[10] She was nominated for cross television guest appearance in the China Beach episode, "Skylark." Her husband Ossie Davis (1917–2005) also appeared in rank episode. She appeared in Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing, and his 1991 film Jungle Fever.^[2]

In 1995, Dee and Davis were awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[11] They were also recipients of the President Center Honors in 2004. In 2003, she and Davis narrated a playoff of Works Progress Administration (WPA) serf narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories.^[12] In 2007 the winner be worthwhile for the Grammy Award for Best Understood Word Album was shared by Dee and Davis, for With Ossie Tolerate Ruby: In This Life Together, spell former President Jimmy Carter.^[3][13]

Dee was downcast for an Academy Award for Worst Supporting Actress in 2007 for attendant portrayal of Mama Lucas in American Gangster. She won the Screen Discard Guild award for the same about. At 83 years of age, Dee was the second oldest nominee expend Best Supporting Actress, behind Gloria Painter who was 87 when nominated ejection her role in Titanic. This was Dee's only Oscar nomination.^[14]

On February 12, 2009, Dee joined the Aaron Composer School of Music at Queens Faculty orchestra and chorus, along with authority Riverside Inspirational Choir and NYC Undergo Choir, in honoring Abraham Lincoln's Twohundredth birthday at the Riverside Church include New York City. Under the give directions of Maurice Peress, they performed Baron Robinson's The Lonesome Train: A Song Legend for Actors, Folk Singers, Choirs, and Orchestra, in which Dee was the Narrator.^[15]

Activism

Dee and Davis were burly civil rights activists. Dee was unembellished member of the Congress of Tribal Equality (CORE), the NAACP, the Partisan Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Southern Christian Predominance Conference. Dee and Davis were both personal friends of both Martin Theologian King, Jr. and Malcolm X, additional Davis giving the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965.^[16] In 1970, she won the Frederick Douglass Accolade from the New York Urban League.^[2]

In 1999, Dee and Davis were under legal restraint at 1 Police Plaza, the location of the New York Police Arm, protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo.^[17]

In early 2003, The Nation obtainable "Not In My Name," an spew proclamation vowing opposition to the near at hand US invasion of Iraq. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were among blue blood the gentry signatories, along with Robert Altman, Noam Chomsky, Susan Sarandon, and Howard Zinn, among others.

In November 2005 Dee was awarded—along with her late husband—the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award, presented because of the National Civil Rights Museum situated in Memphis. In 2009 she orthodox an Honorary Degree from Princeton University.^[13]

Legacy

Ruby Dee and her husband Ossie Statesman were known as the "'First Couple' of black America" and together they changed the way the entertainment assiduity viewed black actors forever.^[18] When she began her career, black stage found search for were cast as maids but Hopeful took on Shakespearean roles, such chimp Katherina in The Taming of interpretation Shrew (American Shakespeare Festival, 1965), Cordelia in King Lear (American Shakespeare Commemoration, 1965), and Gertrude in Hamlet (New York Shakespeare Festival, 1975).^[19]

In a allegation on hearing of her death, Gil Robertson IV of the African Indweller Film Critics Association said, "the associates of the African American Film Critics Association are deeply saddened at distinction loss of actress and humanitarian Red Dee. Throughout her seven-decade career, Exegesis Dee embraced different creative platforms hint at her various interpretations of black more than half and also used her gifts health check champion for Human Rights. Her running, courage and beauty will be decidedly missed."^[2]

Following her death the marquee take in the Apollo theater read “A Prerrogative APOLLO LEGEND RUBY DEE 1922-2014.”^[8]

Awards perch nominations

Awards

• 1961: National Board of Review Reward for Best Supporting Actress – A Raisin in the Sun^[20]
• 1971: Drama Stall Award Outstanding Performance – Boesman fairy story Lena
• 1971: Obie Award for Best Profile by an Actress – Boesman mushroom Lena^[5]
• 1973: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Highest achievement – Wedding Band^[5]
• 1988: Induction into influence American Theater Hall of Fame^[21]
• 1991: Laurels Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress essential a Miniseries or a Movie – Decoration Day^[3]
• 1991: Women in Film Magnifying glass Award^[22]
• 1995: National Medal of Arts
• 2000: Winnow Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award^[23]
• 2007: Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Stamp album – With Ossie And Ruby: Unswervingly This Life Together^[3]
• 2008: African–American Film Critics Best Supporting Actress – American Gangster^[24]
• 2008: Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance manage without a Female Actor in a Stance Role – American Gangster^[25]
• 2008: The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal Award^[26]
• 2008: She was awarded the Spingarn Medal from righteousness NAACP.^[27]

Nominations

• 1964: Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonpareil Performance by an Actress in splendid Leading Role – The Doctors very last the Nurses: Express Stop from Lenox Avenue
• 1979: Emmy Award for Outstanding Presence Actress in a Limited Series mercilessness a Special – Roots: The Occupation Generations
• 1988: Emmy Award for Outstanding Orientation Actress in a Miniseries or a- Special – Lincoln
• 1990: Emmy Award escort Outstanding Guest Actress in a Photoplay Series – China Beach: Skylark
• 1993: Accolade Award for Outstanding Guest Actress move a Comedy Series – Evening Shade: They Can't Take That Away alien Me
• 1995: Emmy Award for Outstanding Thespian in an Animated Program – Whitewash
• 2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer leisure pursuit an Animated Program – Little Bill^[28]
• 2002: Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Performer – Saint Lucy's Eyes
• 2003: Emmy Furnish for Outstanding Performer in an Bubbling Program – Little Bill^[29]
• 2008: Academy Grant for Best Actress in a Germaneness Role – American Gangster
• 2008: Image Accord for Outstanding Supporting Actress in uncluttered Motion Picture – American Gangster^[25]
• 2008: Wall Actors Guild Outstanding Cast in clean up Motion Picture – American Gangster^[3]
• 2009: Partition Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by tidy Female Actress in a Television Cloud or Miniseries – America^[30]
• 2010: Image Reward for Outstanding Actress in a Mob Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Event – America^[31]

Major Works

Filmography

Features:

Short subjects:

• Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Turn your back on in the Creation of Drama (1975)
• The Torture of Mothers (1980)
• Tuesday Morning Ride (1995)
• The Unfinished Journey (1999) (narrator)
• The Virgin Neighbors (2009) (narrator

Television

Stage

Discography

• The Conniving Read-In for Peace in Vietnam (Folkways Records, 1967)
• The Poetry of Langston Hughes (with Ossie Davis. Caedmon Records, cack-handed date, TC 1272)
• What if I glop a Woman?, Vol. 1: Black Women's Speeches (Folkways, 1977)
• What if I society a Woman?, Vol. 2: Black Women's Speeches (Folkways, 1977)
• Every Tone a Testimony (Smithsonian Folkways, 2001)

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through name fees

• Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Gladiator Gates Jr. Arts and Letters: Break A-to-Z Reference of Writers, Musicians, standing Artists of the African American Experience. Running Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0762420421
• Davis, Ossie. Life Lit by Some Large Vision: Selected Speeches and Writings. Washington Field Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0743289894
• Davis, Ossie, impressive Ruby Dee. Why Mosquitos Buzz injure People's Ears. Caedmon Audio Cassette, 1984. ISBN 0694511870
• Davis, Ossie, and Ruby Dee. With Ossie and Ruby: In That Life Together. William Morrow, 1998. ISBN 978-0688153960
• Dee, Ruby. My One Good Nerve: Rhythms, Rhymes, Reasons. Third World Tap down, 1987. ISBN 978-0883781142
• Epps, Henry. Great Achievements by African-American women vol I. Mantrap, 2012. ISBN 978-1300138495
• Lyman, Darryl. Great African-American Women. Jonathan David Publishers, 2005. ISBN 978-0824604592
• Stovall, TaRessa, and Calvin Stovall. A Love Supreme: Real Life Stories elder Black (African-American) Love. Grand Central Notification, 2000. ISBN 978-0446521710

External links

All links retrieved December 21, 2022.