Ruby Dee

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Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee speaking.jpg
Ruby Dee speaking in 2006
Born (1922-10-27) October 27, 1922 (age 90)[1]
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation Actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, activist
Years active 1940–present
Spouse(s) Frankie Dee Brown (approx 1941-1945; divorced)
Ossie Davis (1948-2005; his death)

Ruby Dee (born October 27, 1922)[1] is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist. 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. She has won Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, among scores of others awards.

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Early years [edit]

Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 [1] to 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.[2][3][4][5]

Dee was raised in Harlem, New York and attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with degrees in French and Spanish in 1944. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta.[6]

Career [edit]

Ruby Dee by Carl Van Vechten

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.

Among the many appearances that she made in various television series is her role as Cora Sanders, a Marxist college professor, in the Season 1 / Episode 14 of Police Woman, entitled “Target Black” which aired on Friday night, January 3, 1975. The character of Cora Sanders was obviously, but loosely, influenced by the real-life Angela Y. Davis.

She appeared in one episode of The Golden Girls' sixth season. Dee has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning once for her role in the 1990 TV film Decoration Day.[7] She 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.[8] They were also recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

In 2003, she narrated a series of WPA slave narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories.[9] 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.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for her portrayal of Mama Lucas in American Gangster. She won the Screen Actors Guild award for the same performance. At 83 years of age, Dee is currently the second oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actress, behind Gloria Stuart who was 87 when nominated for her role in Titanic. This was Dee's first nomination.

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.[10]

Personal life and activism [edit]

Ruby Wallace married blues singer Frankie Dee in the mid-1940s but later divorced him. Three years later she married actor Ossie Davis. Together, Dee and Davis wrote an autobiography in which they discussed their political activism as well as insights on their open marriage.[11] Together they had three children: son, blues musician Guy Davis, and two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad. Dee has survived breast cancer for more than 30 years. Dee and Davis were well-known civil rights activists. Among others, Dee is a member of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 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.[12]

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 Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame on March 30, 2007, joining such other honorees as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Nita Lowey.[13] In 2009 she received an Honorary Degree from Princeton University.

Work [edit]

Filmography [edit]

Features:

Short subjects:

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

Television [edit]

Stage [edit]

Discography [edit]

  • 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)
  • 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)

Awards and nominations [edit]

Awards
Nominations

Bibliography [edit]

  • Davis, Ossie; Ruby Dee (1984). Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears (Audio Cassette). Caedmon. ISBN 978-0-694-51187-7. 
  • Dee, Ruby (1986). My One Good Nerve: Rhythms, Rhymes, Reasons. Third World Press. ISBN 0-88378-114-X. 
  • Davis, Ossie; Dee, Ruby (1998). With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-15396-0. 

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Ruby Dee marks 90th birthday with new documentary about her illustrious life with late husband Ossie Davis", New York Daily News, November 13, 2012.
  2. ^ Davis, Ossie; Dee, Ruby (1998). "Ruby Is Born at Seven". With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-17582-1. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  3. ^ Gates, Henry Louis (2005). http://books.google.com/books?id=_FhqCO4RJl8C&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=%22ruby+dee%22+%22marshall+edward+wallace%22&source=web&ots=C-ht4_E768&sig=iCL1HrvdVMa0iurFYC07him18oA |chapterurl= missing title (help). Arts and Letters: An A-To-Z Reference of Writers, Musicians, and Artists of the African American Experience. Running Press. ISBN 0-7624-2042-1. 
  4. ^ Lyman, Darryl (2005). http://books.google.com/books?id=4-HYBUp1sygC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=%22ruby+dee%22+%22marshall+edward+wallace%22&source=web&ots=L1Jur4IeEi&sig=zFSTGlAkHX5a3nw50vRZ-aXHh-Y |chapterurl= missing title (help). Great African-American Women. Jonathan David Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8246-0459-8. 
  5. ^ "Ruby Dee profile". FilmReference.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  6. ^ "Notable Deltas". 
  7. ^ "Ruby Dee Awards". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  8. ^ Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts
  9. ^ IMDb.
  10. ^ Theriversdechurchny.org
  11. ^ "Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee on Open Marriage". About.com. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  12. ^ Davis, Ossie (February 27, 1965). "Malcolm X's Eulogy". The Official Website of Malcolm X. Retrieved September 6, 2009. 
  13. ^ Staff writers (2007-03-06). "Ruby Dee To Be Named To Women's Hall Of Fame". Westchester.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-06. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
  14. ^ "Past Recipients: Crystal Award". Women In Film. Retrieved May 10, 2011. 
  15. ^ NAACP Spingarn Medal

External links [edit]

Authority control
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