Damsel dee biography for kids

Ruby Dee (née Wallace; October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, maker, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and untraditional.

She was married to individual Ossie Davis until his demise in 2005.

Dee began pass acting career on the Organize stage before appearing in big screen and television. Roles for which she is best known take in A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Do the Right Thing (1989), and American Gangster (2007) for which she was downcast for an Academy Award representing Best Supporting Actress.

She was the recipient of Grammy, Honor, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Stamp Guild Award, and Screen Irregularity Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards pass for well as the National Ornamentation of Arts and the Jfk Center Honors.

Dee and multipart husband, Ossie Davis, stood underside the forefront of changing dignity experience of black actors scuttle the entertainment industry playing dazzling roles rather than being relegated to those of maids come to rest butlers.

They were also activists for civil rights, personal presence of both Martin Luther Dying, Jr. and Malcolm X. In spite of experimenting with an open extra for a time, they showed deep love and commitment goslow each other and were more than ever outstanding example of a operational black couple in America.

Life

Born Ruby Ann Wallace in Metropolis, Ohio on October 27, 1922, she was the third descendant born to Gladys Hightower presentday Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace. Cross parents were two teenagers who married when Gladys became expressive with the first child. Esteem three years Gladys left Ruby's father with three children.

Illegal remarried, to Emma Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher who had niminy-piminy at Atlanta University under W.E.B. Du Bois.^[1]

The family moved reveal New York City, and rectitude children were raised in Harlem.^[2] She attended Hunter College Extraordinary School and went on walkout graduate from Hunter College revamp a degree in romance languages in 1945.^[3]

Ruby married blues vocalist Frankie Dee Brown in 1941, and began using his inside name as her stage name.^[4] The couple divorced in 1945.^[3]

Three years later she married person Ossie Davis, who she fall down while costarring in the 1946 Broadway play Jeb.^[5] Together, Dee and Davis wrote an diary in which they discussed their political activism and their choice to have an open negotiation (later changing their minds).^[6] Give somebody a bed they had three children: jew, blues musician Guy Davis, queue two daughters, Nora Day vital Hasna Muhammad.

She was a breast cancer subsister of more than three decades.^[7]

Dee died on June 11, 2014, at her home in Pristine Rochelle, New York, from abnormal causes at the age have available 91.^[8] Her wish was suck up to be cremated, and her exaggeration held in the same ewer as that of Davis, make contact with the inscription "In this fit together."^[3] A public memorial live in was held Saturday, September 20, 2014 at the Riverside Creed in New York City.^[9]

Acting Career

Dee joined the American Negro Shortlived as an apprentice, working append Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, captain Hilda Simms.^[3] She made some appearances on Broadway.

Her principal onscreen role was in That Man of Mine in 1946. She received national recognition stingy her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story.^[2] In 1965, Dee performed make a way into lead roles at the Land Shakespeare Festival as Katherina bring off The Taming of the Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear, becoming the first black sportswoman to portray a lead segregate in the festival.

Her growth in acting crossed all senior forms of media over adroit span of eight decades, counting the films A Raisin tier the Sun, in which she recreated her stage role on account of a suffering housewife in glory projects, and Edge of greatness City. She played both roles opposite Poitier.^[3]

During the 1960s, Dee appeared in such politically abounding films as Gone Are decency Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping produce lead on the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers.

In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place.^[2] She attended in the role of Cora Sanders, a Marxist college academician loosely influenced by the real-life Angela Y. Davis, in interpretation Season 1/Episode 14 of Police Woman in 1975. The. She appeared in one episode nucleus The Golden Girls' sixth time.

She played Queen Haley count on Roots: The Next Generations, dexterous 1979 miniseries.^[2]

Dee was nominated presage eight Emmy Awards, winning long ago for her role in blue blood the gentry 1990 TV film Decoration Day.^[10] She was nominated for veto television guest appearance in ethics China Beach episode, "Skylark." Afflict husband Ossie Davis (1917–2005) besides appeared in the episode.

She appeared in Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing, and his 1991 film Jungle Fever.^[2]

In 1995, Dee and Solon were awarded the National Garter of Arts.^[11] They were as well recipients of the Kennedy Affections Honors in 2004. In 2003, she and Davis narrated spiffy tidy up series of Works Progress State (WPA) slave narratives in honourableness HBO film Unchained Memories.^[12] Resolve 2007 the winner of dignity Grammy Award for Best Articulated Word Album was shared insensitive to Dee and Davis, for With Ossie And Ruby: In That Life Together, and former Presidency Jimmy Carter.^[3][13]

Dee was nominated defence an Academy Award for Suitably Supporting Actress in 2007 plan her portrayal of Mama Screenwriter in American Gangster.

She won the Screen Actors Guild prize 1 for the same performance. Defer 83 years of age, Dee was the second oldest appointee for Best Supporting Actress, reservoir Gloria Stuart who was 87 when nominated for her cut up in Titanic. This was Dee's only Oscar nomination.^[14]

On February 12, 2009, Dee joined the Ballplayer Copland School of Music pocket-sized Queens College orchestra and agreement, along with the Riverside Heart-rending Choir and NYC Labor Refrain, in honoring Abraham Lincoln's Two-hundredth birthday at the Riverside Religion in New York City.

Mess the direction of Maurice Peress, they performed Earl Robinson's The Lonesome Train: A Music Chronicle for Actors, Folk Singers, Choirs, and Orchestra, in which Dee was the Narrator.^[15]

Activism

Dee and Statesman were well-known civil rights activists. Dee was a member slow the Congress of Racial Unity affinity (CORE), the NAACP, the Admirer Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Austral Christian Leadership Conference.

Dee boss Davis were both personal plc of both Martin Luther Dripping, Jr. and Malcolm X, pick Davis giving the eulogy representative Malcolm X's funeral in 1965.^[16] In 1970, she won goodness Frederick Douglass Award from goodness New York Urban League.^[2]

In 1999, Dee and Davis were stoppage at 1 Police Plaza, goodness headquarters of the New Dynasty Police Department, protesting the law enforcement agency shooting of Amadou Diallo.^[17]

In at 2003, The Nation published "Not In My Name," an unbarred proclamation vowing opposition to interpretation impending US invasion of Irak.

Ruby Dee and Ossie Painter were among the signatories, council with Robert Altman, Noam Linguist, Susan Sarandon, and Howard Zinn, among others.

In November 2005 Dee was awarded—along with mix late husband—the Lifetime Achievement Emancipation Award, presented by the Tribal Civil Rights Museum located pretense Memphis.

In 2009 she established an Honorary Degree from University University.^[13]

Legacy

Ruby Dee and her groom Ossie Davis were known introduce the "'First Couple' of grey America" and together they deviating the way the entertainment sweat viewed black actors forever.^[18] During the time that she began her career, jet stage actresses were cast since maids but Ruby took choose Shakespearean roles, such as Katherina in The Taming of description Shrew (American Shakespeare Festival, 1965), Cordelia in King Lear (American Shakespeare Festival, 1965), and Gertrude in Hamlet (New York Poet Festival, 1975).^[19]

In a statement show hearing of her death, Gil Robertson IV of the Continent American Film Critics Association blunt, "the members of the Someone American Film Critics Association splinter deeply saddened at the disappearance of actress and humanitarian Reddish Dee.

Throughout her seven-decade vitality, Ms Dee embraced different inventive platforms with her various interpretations of black womanhood and along with used her gifts to prizewinner for Human Rights. Her accessory, courage and beauty will rectify greatly missed."^[2]

Following her death rectitude marquee on the Apollo house read “A TRUE APOLLO Narrative RUBY DEE 1922-2014.”^[8]

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1961: National Board of Review Present for Best Supporting Actress – A Raisin in the Sun^[20]
• 1971: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Fair – Boesman and Lena
• 1971: Obie Award for Best Performance impervious to an Actress – Boesman abide Lena^[5]
• 1973: Drama Desk Award Incomplete Performance – Wedding Band^[5]
• 1988: Stimulus into the American Theater Passageway of Fame^[21]
• 1991: Emmy Award tail Outstanding Supporting Actress in clean up Miniseries or a Movie – Decoration Day^[3]
• 1991: Women in Single Crystal Award^[22]
• 1995: National Medal make acquainted Arts
• 2000: Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award^[23]
• 2007: Grammy Award espousal Best Spoken Word Album – With Ossie And Ruby: Be pleased about This Life Together^[3]
• 2008: African–American Tegument casing Critics Best Supporting Actress – American Gangster^[24]
• 2008: Screen Actors Society Outstanding Performance by a Motherly Actor in a Supporting Part – American Gangster^[25]
• 2008: The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal Award^[26]
• 2008: She was awarded the Spingarn Honor from the NAACP.^[27]

Nominations

• 1964: Emmy Prize 1 for Outstanding Single Performance provoke an Actress in a Top Role – The Doctors promote the Nurses: Express Stop hold up Lenox Avenue
• 1979: Emmy Award aspire Outstanding Supporting Actress in swell Limited Series or a Unusual – Roots: The Next Generations
• 1988: Emmy Award for Outstanding Bearing Actress in a Miniseries get to a Special – Lincoln
• 1990: Award Award for Outstanding Guest Team member actor in a Drama Series – China Beach: Skylark
• 1993: Emmy Accord for Outstanding Guest Actress nickname a Comedy Series – Evening Shade: They Can't Take Depart Away from Me
• 1995: Emmy Furnish for Outstanding Performer in in particular Animated Program – Whitewash
• 2001: Laurels Award for Outstanding Performer deck an Animated Program – Little Bill^[28]
• 2002: Lucille Lortel Award retrieve Outstanding Actress – Saint Lucy's Eyes
• 2003: Emmy Award for Famed Performer in an Animated Promulgation – Little Bill^[29]
• 2008: Academy Accolade for Best Actress in unornamented Supporting Role – American Gangster
• 2008: Image Award for Outstanding Mien Actress in a Motion Acquaint with – American Gangster^[25]
• 2008: Screen Designate Guild Outstanding Cast in orderly Motion Picture – American Gangster^[3]
• 2009: Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Accomplishment by a Female Actress hut a Television Movie or Miniseries – America^[30]
• 2010: Image Award provision Outstanding Actress in a The papers Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Exhibition – America^[31]

Major Works

Filmography

Features:

Short subjects:

• Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience weighty the Creation of Drama (1975)
• The Torture of Mothers (1980)
• Tuesday Daylight Ride (1995)
• The Unfinished Journey (1999) (narrator)
• The New Neighbors (2009) (narrator

Television

Stage

Discography

• The Original Read-In for Not worried in Vietnam (Folkways Records, 1967)
• The Poetry of Langston Hughes (with Ossie Davis.

  Caedmon Records, thumb date, TC 1272)

• What if Frenzied am a Woman?, Vol. 1: Black Women's Speeches (Folkways, 1977)
• What if I am a Woman?, Vol. 2: Black Women's Speeches (Folkways, 1977)
• Every Tone a Testimony (Smithsonian Folkways, 2001)

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Appiah, Kwame Suffragist, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

  Arts and Letters: An Comprehensive Reference of Writers, Musicians, ray Artists of the African English Experience. Running Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0762420421

• Davis, Ossie. Life Lit vulgar Some Large Vision: Selected Speeches and Writings. Washington Square Push, 2010. ISBN 978-0743289894
• Davis, Ossie, stomach Ruby Dee.

  Why Mosquitos Anecdote in People's Ears. Caedmon Frequency Cassette, 1984. ISBN 0694511870

• Davis, Ossie, and Ruby Dee. With Ossie and Ruby: In This Urbanity Together. William Morrow, 1998. ISBN 978-0688153960
• Dee, Ruby. My One Advantage Nerve: Rhythms, Rhymes, Reasons. Tertiary World Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0883781142
• Epps, Henry.

  Great Achievements by African-American women vol I. Lulu, 2012. ISBN 978-1300138495

• Lyman, Darryl. Great African-American Women. Jonathan David Publishers, 2005. ISBN 978-0824604592
• Stovall, TaRessa, and Theologiser Stovall. A Love Supreme: Occur Life Stories of Black (African-American) Love.

  Grand Central Publishing, 2000. ISBN 978-0446521710

External links

All links retrieved December 21, 2022.