My Favorite Stars

Ruby Dee

27 Jan 2012 Posted by "Ms Beamer" in Jan 27,2012 Black Female Actresses

Ruby Dee

Ruby Dee born October 27, 1924 is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist. She has won a Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, SAG and SAG Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Medal of Arts, among others awards. She is perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun 1961 and the film American Gangster 2007 for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio the daughter of Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace a cook, waiter, and porter. After her mother left the family Dee’s father married Emma Amelia Benson a schoolteacher. Dee grew up in Harlem, New York. She attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with degrees in French and Spanish in 1944. Dee is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Dee made several appearances on Broadway before receiving national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. Her career in acting has crossed all major forms of media over a span of eight decades including the films A Raisin in the Sun, in which she recreated her stage role as a suffering housewife in the projects, and Edge of the City. She played both roles opposite Sidney Poitier. During the 1960s Dee appeared in such politically charged films as Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers.

Ruby Wallace had a short lived marriage to singer Frankie Dee. The marriage fell apart in 1945. After finding that they had much in common Ruby married Ossie Davis Ossie Davis six years her senior in December 1948. They have three children Nora an educator, Guy a blues musician, and Hasna a middle-school assistant principal. They have seven grandchildren. Dee and Davis have always striven to keep family structure even when traveling they ate as a family with the TV turned off so they could converse. Keeping their long-term marriage vigorous they had some rousing fights but absolutely adore each other. Together they have participated in political activism and the fight for civil rights. Their social mission is to break down racial barriers. Their dual autobiography “In This Life Together” was published in 1998.

Do The Right Thing Jun 30, 1989 On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Every one’s hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. Variously hailed as the most insightful view of race relations ever to hit U.S. screens or condemned as dangerous agitprop, but its timeliness—and ability to strike nerves—was never in question.

The film presents a society in crisis, a crisis both immediate and historical in nature. It’s significant that what eventually brings the conflict to a head is the seemingly unimportant absence of black faces on Aiello’s wall. viewed in itself, it’s trivial, one man’s pardonably chauvinistic expression of Italian pride—isn’t that what melting pot America’s all about? Aiello’s wall represents a historical distortion: the lie that black people’s contributions to our society don’t rate commemoration.

Seen from this point of view, Aiello’s wall is symbolic: one more example of blacks being forced to view themselves through a white prism in which they are absent or stereotyped. Lee’s structure also reflects the disjunction between the historical and the immediate moment: the “episodic” plot reveals the nature of its construction only at the end, when it becomes clear how inexorably all the apparently minor incidents in Lee’s script have led to the concluding violent impasse.

Dee was nominated for her television guest appearance in the China Beach episode “Skylark”. Her husband Ossie Davis (1917–2005) also appeared in that episode. In 1995 she and her husband were awarded the National Medal of Arts. They were also recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

In November 2005 Dee was awarded along with her late husband the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award, presented by the National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis, TN. Dee, who is a long time resident of New Rochelle, New York was inducted into the Westchester County Women’s Hall of Fame on March 30, 2007 joining the ranks with past honorees Hillary Clinton, Sally Ziegler and Nita Lowey.

In 2007 the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album was tied between Dee and Ossie Davis for With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together, and former President Jimmy Carter.

Together, Dee and Davis wrote an autobiography in which they discuss their political activism as well as insights on their open marriage. Dee has survived breast cancer for more than 30 years. Dee’s beloved husband and partner Ossie Davis died at age 87 on February 4, 2005 most likely of natural causes. Their son said that Davis had been suffering from heart problems and had just recovered from a recent bout of pneumonia. Although we have no birth time for him Davis’ New York Times obituary stated that “Raiford Chatman Davis was born on Dec. 18, 1917 in Cogdell, Ga. He was the oldest of five children of Kince Charles Davis and the former Laura Cooper.”

Dee and Davis were well-known civil rights activists. Among others, Dee is a member of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dee and Davis were personal friends of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, with Davis giving the eulogy at Malcolm’s funeral in 1965.

January 25, 2008 Ruby Dee Gets her first Oscar Nomination. The long-time actress is the only African American actor nominated that year. Despite a possible shutdown of the awards ceremony due to the ongoing writers strike the awards were scheduled for Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The legendary stage, film, and television actress and civil rights activist received her first Oscar Nomination ever for her role as Mama Lucas the mother of drug lord Frank Lucas in the hit film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington. In 2009 she received an Honorary Degree from Princeton University.

June 29, 2010 Ruby Dee recites a poem at The Inspiration Event at Radio City Music Hall during a National Conference on those who volunteer and serve.

Ruby Dee Honored at Bet’s “Black Girls Rock!” Ceremony November 8, 2010 The award show, which celebrated the power and influence of black women, also honored producer and rap artist Missy Elliot, who was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Teresa Clarke, the founder of Africa.com, who was given the Trailblazer Award.

June 15, 2011 At Dartmouth’s 2011 Commencement, actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts. Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim noted Dee’s astonishing array of honors.

June 29, 2011 Actress, Activist Ruby Dee Honored at Billie Holiday Theatre Dee founded the Coalition of Theatres of Color with her husband Ossie Davis in 2004 to unify low-budget minority theatres in New York State. The Coalition meets once a month to discuss common administrative issues such as budgets, space and advertising.

Representatives from the offices of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Congressman Ed Towns, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assembly member Annette Robinson and Councilman Al Vann each presented proclamations heralding Ms. Dee’s career as an actress as well as her tenacious advocacy for human and civil rights on behalf of the theatrical community. Dr. Ruby Dee has forever influenced the lives and careers of women worldwide.

October 28, 2011 Ruby Dee to present spoken-word show at Black Academy in Dallas, Tx. Dee turned 87 and shows no signs of slowing down. She appeared in four movies this year and is scheduled to perform spoken word Saturday at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, where she has been on stage half a dozen times before. The source this time is her 1986 book, My One Good Nerve. Behind her will be a six-piece jazz band and three singers.

December 31, 2011 Ruby Dee spoke at Capital City Kwwanzaa Festival. The Elegba Folklore Society held its 21st annual Capital City Kwanzaa Festival in honor of the traditions, principles and artistic expressions of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a week long celebration of African-American heritage that occurs every year from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. First established in 1966 by Maulana Karenga the holiday was intended to in the words of its creator, “give African-Americans an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history,” and is based on what Karenga dubbed “the seven principles of Kwanzaa,” each of which is the focus of a different day.

Ruby Dee recalls Harlem roots at Kwanzaa celebration… “All the things are intertwined, inter wedded,” Dee said before her appearance Saturday at the Capital City Kwanzaa Festival. “Having an astonishing stepmother, growing up in Harlem, marrying Ossie Davis, having these children, everything is intertwine.”

For Dee it would be hard to imagine her world without the African culture of Harlem where she grew up. She still lives in New York and came to Richmond with her son blues musician Guy Davis. She has two daughters, and seven grandchildren.