Ruby Dee

Ruby Dee (born Ruby Ann Wallace, October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and Do the Right Thing (1989).
For her performance as Mahalee Lucas 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 was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner. She was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient.
Dee was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005.[1]
== Early life ==
Dee was born on October 27, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio,[2] the daughter of Gladys (née Hightower) and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter and porter.[3] After her mother left the family, Dee's father remarried, to Emma Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher.[4][5][6][7]
Dee was raised in Harlem, New York.[8] She attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with a degree in Romance languages in 1945.[9] She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta.[10]
== Career ==
Dee joined the American Negro Theater as an apprentice, working with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Hilda Simms.[9] She made several appearances on Broadway. Her first onscreen role was in That Man of Mine in 1946. She received national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story.[8] 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. Her career in acting 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 Poitier.[9]
During the 1960s, Dee appeared in Gone Are the Days! and The Incident. In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place.[8] She appeared 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. She played Queen Haley in Roots: The Next Generations, a 1979 miniseries.[8]
Dee was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning once for her role in the 1990 TV film Decoration Day.[11] She was nominated for her television guest appearance in the China Beach episode, "Skylark". Her husband Ossie Davis(1917–2005) also appeared in the episode. She appeared in Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing, and his 1991 film Jungle Fever.[8]
In 1995, she and Davis were awarded the National Medal of Arts.[12] 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.[13] In 2007 the winner of 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.[9][14]
Dee 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 only Oscar nomination.[15]
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.[16]
Dee's last role in a theatrically released film was in the Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words, in which she portrayed the mother of Murphy's protagonist. Perhaps, her penultimate film role is in 1982, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival[17] and was released on home video on March 1, 2016.[18] It is unknown whether her final role will ever be seen, as King Dog was in production at the time of her death,[19] and no release date has ever been announced.
== Personal life and activism ==
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.[9] Three years later she married actor Ossie Davis, whom she met while costarring in Robert Ardrey's 1946 Broadway play Jeb.[20] 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).[21][22] 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.[23]
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Dee's name and picture.[24]
Dee and Davis were well-known civil rights activists in the Civil Rights Movement.[25] Dee was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Thetasorority and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1963, Dee emceed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.[26] 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.[27] In 1970, she won the Frederick Douglass Award from the New York Urban League.[8]
In 1999, Dee and Davis were arrested at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo.[28]
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.[29] In 2009, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Princeton University.[14][30]
== Death ==
Dee died on June 11, 2014, at her home in New Rochelle, New York, from natural causes at the age of 91.[31] 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, Ms. Dee embraced different creative platforms with her various interpretations of black womanhood, and also used her gifts to champion for Human Rights. Her strength, courage, and beauty will be greatly missed."[8]
"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".[32]
Dee was cremated, and her ashes are held in the same urn as that of Davis, with the inscription "In this thing together".[9] A public memorial celebration honoring Dee was held on September 20, 2014, at the Riverside Church in Upper Manhattan.[33]
== Work ==
=== Filmography ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Note
1946	That Man of Mine [8] 	 	
1947	Easy to Get [34] 	Drugstore girl 	U.S. Army venereal disease training film
1947	The Fight Never Ends [35] 	Jane 	
1948	What a Guy 	[35] 	
1950	The Jackie Robinson Story 	Rae Robinson 	
1950	No Way Out 	Connie Brooks 	Uncredited
1951	The Tall Target 	Rachel 	
1954	Go, Man, Go! 	Irma Jackson 	
1956	 	Mrs. Ashlow 	Uncredited
1957	Edge of the City 	Lucy Tyler 	
1958	St. Louis Blues 	Elizabeth 	
1958	Virgin Island 	Ruth 	
1959	Take a Giant Step 	Christine 	
1961	A Raisin in the Sun 	Ruth Younger 	
1963	The Balcony 	Thief 	
1963	Gone Are the Days! 	Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins	
1967	The Incident 	Joan Robinson 	
1968	Up Tight! 	Laurie 	
1970	King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis 	 	Documentary
1972	Buck and the Preacher 	Ruth 	
1972	Black Girl 	Netta's Mother 	
1973	Wattstax 	 	
1976	Countdown at Kusini [36] 	Leah Matanzima 	
1982	Cat People 	Female 	
1989	Do the Right Thing 	Mother Sister 	
1990	Love at Large 	Corrine Dart 	
1991	Jungle Fever 	Lucinda Purify 	
1993	Color Adjustment 	Narrator 	Documentary
1993	Cop and a Half 	Rachel 	
1994	The Stand 	Mother Abagail Freemantle 	
1995	Just Cause 	Evangeline 	
1996	Mr. & Mrs. Loving [37] 	Sophia 	
1997	A Simple Wish 	Hortense 	
1998	A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner 	Narrator 	Documentary[36]
1999	Baby Geniuses[36] 	Margo 	
2003	Beah: A Black Woman Speaks 	Herself 	Documentary
2006	No. 2 	Nanna Maria 	
2006	The Way Back Home [36] 	Maude 	
2007	All About Us [36] 	Ms. Ella 	
2007	American Gangster 	Mama Lucas 	
2007	Steam 	Doris 	
2009	The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll[36] 	Miss Candy 	
2010	Dream Street 	 	[38]
2011	Video Girl 	Valerie 	[39]
2011	Politics of Love [36] 	 	
2011	Red & Blue Marbles [36] 	Professor Wright 	
2012	Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abu-Jamal	 	[40]
2012	A Thousand Words 	Annie McCall 	[36]
2013	Betty & Coretta 	Narrator 	[41]
2013	1982 	Rose Brown 	
Short subjects:
* Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience in the Creation of Drama (1975)[42]
* The Torture of Mothers (1980)[35]
* Tuesday Morning Ride (1995)[43]
* The Unfinished Journey (1999) (narrator)[44]
* The New Neighbors (2009) (narrator)[45]
=== Television ===
* The Bitter Cup (1961)[37]
* Seven Times Monday (1962)[37]
* The Fugitive (1963)[37]
* Of Courtship and Marriage (1964)[37]
* Guiding Light (cast member in 1967)[37]
* Peyton Place (cast member from 1968–1969)
* Deadlock (1969)[37]
* The Sheriff (1971)[37]
* It's Good to Be Alive (1974)[37]
* Police Woman Season 1 / Episode 14 "Target Black" (1975)
* Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (miniseries)[37]
* I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)[37]
* All God's Children (1980)[37]
* With Ossie and Ruby! (1980–1982)[37]
* Long Day's Journey into Night (1982)
* Go Tell It on the Mountain (1984)
* The Atlanta Child Murders (1985) (miniseries)
* Windmills of the Gods (1988)[37]
* Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988)[37]
* The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990)[37]
* Decoration Day (1990)[37]
* Golden Girls (1990)[37]
* Jazztime Tale (1991) (voice)[35]
* Middle Ages (1992–1993)
* The Ernest Green Story (1993)
* The Stand (1994) (miniseries)
* Whitewash (1994) (voice)[37]
* Mr. and Mrs. Loving (1996)[37]
* Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (1996)
* The Wall (1998)[37]
* Little Bill (1999–2004) (voice)
* Passing Glory (1999)
* Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999)
* A Storm in Summer (2000)[37]
* Finding Buck McHenry (2000)[37]
* The Feast of All Saints (2001) (miniseries)
* Taking Back Our Town (2001)[37]
* Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)
* Meet Mary Pleasant (2008)
* America (2009)
== Awards and nominations ==
Awards
* 1961: National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress – A Raisin in the Sun[52]
* 1971: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Performance – Boesman and Lena[53]
* 1971: Obie Award for Best Performance by an Actress – Boesman and Lena[20][53]
* 1973: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Performance – Wedding Band[20]
* 1988: Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame[54]
* 1991: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie – Decoration Day[9]
* 1991: Women in Film Crystal Award[55]
* 1995: National Medal of Arts[53]
* 2000: Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award[56]
* 2003: Women of Vision Award - Women in Film & Video-DC [57]
* 2007: Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together (tied with Jimmy Carter)[9][58]
* 2008: African–American Film Critics Best Supporting Actress – American Gangster[59]
* 2008: Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role – American Gangster[26][60]
* 2008: The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal Award[61]
* 2008: She was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.[62]
Nominations
* 1964: Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role – The Doctors and the Nurses: Express Stop from Lenox Avenue[37]
* 1979: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special – Roots: The Next Generations[53]
* 1988: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special – Lincoln[53]
* 1990: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series – China Beach: Skylark[53]
* 1993: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series – Evening Shade: They Can't Take That Away from Me[53]
* 1995: Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Whitewash[37]
* 2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Little Bill[63]
* 2002: Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Actress – Saint Lucy's Eyes[53]
* 2003: Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Little Bill[64]
* 2008: Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role – American Gangster[53]
* 2008: Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture – American Gangster[60]
* 2008: Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture – American Gangster[9]
* 2009: Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries – America[65]
* 2010: Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Event – America[66]