Ruby Dee (born Ruby Ann Wallace; October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress.<!-- only primary occupations, per MOS:ROLEBIO --> She was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005. She received numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Obie Award, and a Drama Desk Award, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1995, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2000, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Dee started her career with the American Negro Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in South Pacific (1943). She met her future husband working together on the play Jeb (1946). She originated the Broadway roles of Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and reprised the role in the 1961 film and Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins in the Ossie Davis play Purlie Victorious (1961) and reprised the role in the 1963 film.
She made her film debut in That Man of Mine (1946) before landing leading roles in films such as The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Edge of the City (1957), Take a Giant Step (1959), and Buck and the Preacher (1972). She also acted in the Ossie Davis film Black Girl (1972), and later in the Spike Lee films Do the Right Thing (1989) and Jungle Fever (1991). For her performance in American Gangster (2007), Dee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
Dee received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in The Doctors and the Nurses (1964) and Decoration Day (1990). She was nominated for her other roles in Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Lincoln (1988), China Beach (1990), and Evening Shade (1993). She also acted in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979), Long Day's Journey into Night (1982), Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990), and The Stand (1994). She voiced Alice the Great in the Nick Jr. series Little Bill from 1999 to 2004.
Early life and education
Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Gladys (née Hightower) and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter and porter. After her mother left the family, Dee's father remarried, to Emma Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher.
Dee was raised in Harlem, New York. Then, she went on to graduate from Hunter College with a degree in Romance languages in 1945.
Career
1940–1959: Early acting roles
thumb|left|180px|Dee by [[Carl Van Vechten, September 25, 1962]]
Dee joined the American Negro Theatre as an apprentice, working with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Hilda Simms. She played the title role in the Eugene O'Neill play Anna Lucasta. She met her future husband Ossie Davis in the post-World War II play Jeb (1946). That same year she was in her first onscreen role in the musical That Man of Mine (1946). The following year she acted in the crime film The Fight Never Ends (1947).
She received national recognition for her portrayal of Rachel Robinson in the sports drama film The Jackie Robinson Story (1950). Also in 1950 she had an uncredited role in film noir No Way Out directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. She continued acting in films such as the historical crime film The Tall Target (1951), the sports film Go Man Go (1954), the music film St. Louis Blues (1958), and the British drama Virgin Island (1958). During this time she took a role in the film noir Edge of the City (1957) starring alongside John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier, and in the film Take a Giant Step (1959) starring with Johnny Nash and Estelle Hemsley.
1959–1979: Breakthrough and acclaim
thumb|right|[[Louis Gossett Jr., Dee and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun (1959)]]
Dee's career in acting crossed all major forms of media over a span of eight decades. In 1959, she gained prominence for originating the role of Ruth Younger, a suffering housewife in the projects, in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, which premiered on Broadway. She acted alongside Sidney Poitier and Louis Gossett Jr. The play was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. She reprised the role opposite Poitier in the 1961 film of the same name. She acted opposite her husband Ossie Davis and Alan Alda in his acting debut. They reprised their roles of the 1963 film entitled Gone Are the Days!, which was produced by Brock Peters and directed by Nicholas Webster.
Her early television appearances included episodes of The Fugitive, The Defenders, and the soap opera Guiding Light. She received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role on The Doctors and the Nurses (1964). In 1965, Dee performed in lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear, becoming the first black actress to portray a lead role in the festival. In 1963 she acted in the film The Balcony with Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee Grant, and Leonard Nimoy. She then acted in the film noir The Incident (1967), the drama film Uptight (1968), and the documentary King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970).
thumb|left| Left to right: [[Ely Landau, Ruby Dee, Paul Newman, and Sidney Lumet at the King: A Filmed Record (1970)]]
In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place. She also appeared in the comedy film Cop and a Half (1993) with Burt Reynolds.
Dee played Mother Abagail Freemantle in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand (1994). In 1995, she and Davis were awarded the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. She collaborated with comedian Bill Cosby acting in both Cosby in 1999, and voicing Alice the Great in the Nick Jr. animated series Little Bill from 1999 to 2004, which led to two nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award.
In 2003, she narrated a series of WPA & slave narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories. They were also recipients of the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors. In 2007 the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album was shared by Dee and Ossie Davis for With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, and former President Jimmy Carter.
On February 12, 2009, Dee joined the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College orchestra and chorus, along with the Riverside Inspirational Choir and NYC Labor Choir, in honoring Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday at the Riverside Church in New York City. Under the direction of Maurice Peress, they performed Earl Robinson's The Lonesome Train: A Music Legend for Actors, Folk Singers, Choirs, and Orchestra, in which Dee was the narrator. Dee's last role in a theatrically released film was in the Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words (2012), in which she portrayed the mother of Murphy's protagonist. In 2013 she narrated the Lifetime film Betty & Coretta starring Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige. Her final film role is in 1982, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on home video on March 1, 2016. It is unknown whether her final role will ever be seen, as King Dog was in production at the time of her death, and no release date has ever been announced.
Personal life
Marriage
Ruby Wallace married blues singer Frankie Dee Brown in 1941, and began using his middle name as her stage name. The couple divorced in 1945. Together, Dee and Davis wrote an autobiography in which they discussed their political activism and their decision to have an open marriage (later changing their views). Together they had three children: son, blues musician Guy Davis, and two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad. Dee was a breast cancer survivor of more than three decades. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Dee's name and picture.
Political activism
Dee and Davis were well-known civil rights activists in the Civil Rights Movement. Dee was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She was also as an active member of the Harlem Writers Guild for over 40 years. In 1963, Dee emceed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Dee and Davis were both personal friends of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, with Davis giving the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965. In 1970, she won the Frederick Douglass Award from the New York Urban League.
In early 2003, The Nation published "Not in Our Name", an open proclamation vowing opposition to the impending US invasion of Iraq. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were among the 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 by the National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis. Dee, a long-time resident of New Rochelle, New York, was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame which honors the most notable residents from throughout the community's 325-year history. She was also inducted into the Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame on March 30, 2007, joining such other honorees as Hillary Clinton and Nita Lowey. In 2009, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Princeton University.
Death
Dee died on June 11, 2014, at her home in New Rochelle, New York, from natural causes at the age of 91. In a statement, Gil Robertson IV of the African-American Film Critics Association said, "the members of the African American Film Critics Association are deeply saddened at the loss of actress and humanitarian Ruby Dee. Throughout her seven-decade career, Dee embraced different creative platforms with her various interpretations of black womanhood and also used her gifts to champion for Human Rights."
"She very peacefully surrendered", said her daughter Nora Day. "We hugged her, we kissed her, we gave her our permission to go. She opened her eyes. She looked at us. She closed her eyes, and she set sail." Following her death, the marquee on the Apollo Theater read: "A TRUE APOLLO LEGEND RUBY DEE 1922–2014".
Dee was cremated, and her ashes are held in the same urn as that of Davis, with the inscription "In this thing together". Their shared urn was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Acting credits
Filmography
thumb|270px|
{| class="wikitable"
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!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Note
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|1946 || That Man of Mine ||Drugstore girl ||U.S. Army venereal disease training film
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| The Fight Never Ends || Herself || Short
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|1976 || Countdown at Kusini || || Short
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|1982 || Cat People ||Female ||
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|1989 || Do the Right Thing || Mother Sister||
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|1990 || Love at Large || Corrine Dart||
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|1991 || Jungle Fever ||Lucinda Purify ||
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|rowspan=2|1993 || Color Adjustment || Narrator ||Documentary
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| Cop and a Half ||Rachel ||
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|rowspan=2|1995 || Just Cause || Evangeline||
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| Tuesday Morning Ride || Jennie || Short
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|1997 || A Simple Wish ||Hortense ||
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|1998 || A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner|| Narrator|| Documentary || Narrator || Short
|-
<!-- || Baby of the Family Needs verification || ||-->
<!-- |rowspan=2|2003 || Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives|| Narrator|| Documentary Needs verification -->
|2003 || Beah: A Black Woman Speaks||Herself ||Documentary
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|rowspan=2|2006 || No. 2||Nanna Maria ||
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|The Way Back Home||Maude ||
<!-- | Lockdown, USA ||Narrator || Documentary-->
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|rowspan=3|2007 || All About Us || Narrator || Short
<!-- | A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School ||Narrator ||Documentary Needs verification -->
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|2010 || Dream Street ||Laura ||
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|rowspan=3|2011 || Video Girl||Valerie ||
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| Politics of Love
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| A Thousand Words ||Annie McCall ||
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| 2013 || 1982|| Rose Brown|| Final role
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Note
|-
<!-- The First Year (1946) Needs verification -->
| 1960–61 || Play of the Week || Lila / Jane||2 episodes
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| 1961 || Frontiers of Faith
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| 1970 || Sesame Street
|Herself
|
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| 1971 || The Sheriff
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Note
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|2003
|Little Bill Thinks Big
|Alice the Great
|
|}
Theatre
- On Strivers Row (1940)
- Natural Man (1941)
|-
| 1964
| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
| The Doctors and the Nurses
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| 1979
| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special
| Roots: The Next Generations
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| 1989
| NAACP Image Awards
| Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
| Do the Right Thing
|
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| 1990
| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
| China Beach <small>(Episode: "Skylark")</small>
|
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| Women in Film
| Crystal Award
| Herself
|
|
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| 1993
| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
| Evening Shade
|
|
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| rowspan="2" | 2000
| Screen Actors Guild Awards
| Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
| Herself
|
|
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| NAACP Image Awards
| Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series
| Having Our Say
|
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| 2001
| Daytime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program
| Little Bill
|
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| 2002
| Lucille Lortel Awards
| Outstanding Actress
| Saint Lucy's Eyes
|
|
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| Women in Film and Television International
| Women in Film & Video-DC Women of Vision Awards
| Herself
|
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|-
| 2007
| Grammy Awards
| Best Spoken Word Album <small>(tied with Jimmy Carter)</small>
| With Ossie and Ruby
|
|
|-
| rowspan="8" | 2008
| African–American Film Critics Awards
| Best Supporting Actress
| rowspan="6" | American Gangster
|
|
|-
| NAACP Image Awards
| Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
|
|
|-
| Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture
|
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| Academy Awards
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role
|
|
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| NAACP
| Spingarn Medal
|
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| rowspan="2" | 2010
| Screen Actors Guild Awards
| Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries
| rowspan="2" | America
|
|
|-
| NAACP Image Awards
| Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series
|
|
|}
Discography
- The Original Read-In for Peace in Vietnam (Folkways Records, 1967)
- The Poetry of Langston Hughes (with Ossie Davis. Caedmon Records, no date, TC 1272)
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (with George Grizzard. Caedmon Records, 1970, TC 1324)
- Tough Poems For Tough People (with Ossie Davis and Henry Braun. Caedmon Records, 1972, TC 1396)
- To Make A Poet Black: The best poems of Countee Cullen (with Ossie Davis. Caedmon Records, 1971, TC 1400
- To Be A Slave (with Ossie Davis. Caedmon Records, 1972, TC 2066)
- The Lost Zoo (Caedmon Records, 1978, TC 1539)
- Why Mosquitoes Buzz In People's Ears and Other Tales (with Ossie Davis. Caedmon Records, 1978, TC 1592)
- What if I 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)
- American Short Stories, Vol 2, Various Artists (eav Lexington, no date, LE 7703)
- American Short Stories, Vol 3, Various Artists (eav Lexington, no date, LE 7704)
- I've got a name, Various Artists (Holt's Impact, 1968, CSM 662)
- At your own risk, Various Artists (Holt's Impact, 1968, CSM 663)
- Conflict, Various Artists (Holt's Impact, 1969, CSM 816)
- Sight lines, Various Artists (Holt's Impact, 1970, SBN 03–071525–3)
- Roses & Revolutions, Various Artists (D.S.T. Telecommunications, Inc., Production, 1975)
- New Dimensions in Music (with John Cullum. CBS Records, 1976, P 13161)
Bibliography
See also
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
References
External links
- Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
- Archive of American Television interview
- Ruby Dee at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Ruby Dee's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Ruby Dee Discography at Smithsonian Folkways