Ruby Dee

**Ruby Dee** (1922–2014) var en amerikansk skuespiller, poet, dramatiker, manusforfatter, journalist, borgerrettsaktivist og ektefelle til skuespilleren Ossie Davis.

## Liv og virke
### Bakgrunn
Foreldrene var Gladys Hightower og Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace. Etter at moren forlot familien, giftet Dees far seg på nytt, med Emma Amelia Benson som var skolelærer.

Dee vokste opp i Harlem i New York. Familien leide ut rom til afroamerikanske reisende som i New York da ikke hadde lov til å bo i «hvite hoteller». Rubys stemor sørget for at hun fikk pianotimer. Hun fikk senere gå på Hunter College High School hvor hun tok eksamen med grader i fransk og spansk i 1944. Hun var medlem av Delta Sigma Theta.

### Skuespiller
Hun var kanskje mest kjent for hovedrollen i filmen *A Raisin in the Sun* (1961) og filmen *[[American Gangster]]* (2007) der hun ble nominert til Oscar for beste kvinnelige birolle. Hun vant Grammy, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild Award og Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards. Hun mottok National Medal of Arts og Kennedy Center Honors, blant mange andre utmerkelser.

### Politisk engasjement
Dee og hennes ektemann Ossie Davis gikk for å være «borgerrettsbevegelsens første ektepar».
Allerede som elleveåring hadde Ruby Dee holdt sin første offentlige tale ved en demonstrasjon. Anledningen var en lærerinnes selvmord på grunn av budsjettinnsparinger. I begynnelsen av 1950-årene støttet hun Ethel og Julius Rosenberg. I 1963 ledet hun sammen med ektemannen, taleordenen ved avslutningsarrangementet til Marsjen til Washington for arbeid og frihet. Blant de kontakter hun pleiet i borgerrettsbevegelsen var ikke bare Martin Luther King, men også den militante Malcolm X.  Etter drapene av fire skolejenter ved et bombeangrep i Birmingham i Alabama organiserte Ruby Dee en boikott av juleshopping og samlet inn bidrag til Martin Luther King.

Da hun var nesten åtti år gammel deltok hun i en protestmarsj mot politiskytingen av Amadou Diallo da han skulle arresteres av en betjent fra New York City Police Department. Hun betraktet også sin skuespillergjerning som et middel i kampen for borgerrettigheter.

## Filmografi

;Spillefilmer

* *That Man of Mine* (1946)
* *What a Guy* (1948)
* *The Fight Never Ends* (1949)
* *[[The Jackie Robinson Story]]* (1950)
* *[[No Way Out (1950 film)|No Way Out]]* (1950)
* *[[The Tall Target]]* (1951)
* *[[Go, Man, Go!]]* (1954)
* *The Great American Pastime* (1956)
* *[[Edge of the City]]* (1957)
* *[[Virgin Island (film)|Virgin Island]]* (1958)
* *[[St. Louis Blues (1958 film)|St. Louis Blues]]* (1958)
* *[[Take a Giant Step]]* (1959)
* *[[A Raisin in the Sun (1961 film)|A Raisin in the Sun]]* (1961)
* *Purlie Victorious (1961)
* *The Balcony* (1963)
* *Gone Are the Days!* (1963)
* *The Incident* (1967)
* *Up Tight!* (1968)
* ** (1970) (documentary)
* *Buck and the Preacher* (1972)
* *Black Girl* (1972)
* *Wattstax* (1973)
* *Countdown at Kusini* (1976)
* *Cat People* (1982)
* *Gjør det rette* (1989)
* *Love at Large* (1990)
* *Jungle Fever* (1991)
* *Color Adjustment* (1992) (documentary) (narrator)
* *Cop and a Half* (1993)
* *The Stand* (1994)
* *A Simple Wish* (1997)
* *Just Cause* (1995)
* *Mr. & Mrs. Loving* (1996)
* *A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner* (1998) (documentary) (narrator)
* *Baby Geniuses* (1999)
* *Baby of the Family* (2002)
* *Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives* (2003) (documentary) (narrator)
* *Beah: A Black Woman Speaks* (2003) (documentary)
* *No. 2* (2006)
* *The Way Back Home* (2006)
* *Lockdown, USA* (2006) (documentary) (narrator)
* *All About Us* (2007)
* *American Gangster* (2007)
* *Steam* (2007)
* *The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll* (2009)
* *A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School* (2009) (documentary) (narrator)
* *Dream Street* (2010)
* *Video Girl* (2011)
* *Politics of Love* (2011)
* *Red & Blue Marbles* (2011)
* *Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age* (2012) (documentary)
* *Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abu-Jamal* (2012)
* *A Thousand Words* (2012)
* *Lifetime - Betty and Coretta (film)* (2013)


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

=== TV ===


* *The First Year* (1946)
* *Seven Times Monday* (1962)
* *The Fugitive (TV series)* (1963)
* *Guiding Light* (cast member in 1967)
* *Peyton Place* (cast member from 1968–1969)
* *Deadlock* (1969)
* *The Sheriff* (1971)
* *Chelsea D.H.O.* (1973) (unsold pilot)
* *It's Good to Be Alive* (1974)
* *Police Woman* Season 1 / Episode 14 "Target Black" (1975)
* ** (1979) (miniseries)
* *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* (1979)
* *All God's Children* (1980)
* *Ossie and Ruby!* (1980–1982)
* *Long Day's Journey into Night* (1982)
* *Go Tell It on the Mountain* (1985)
* *The Atlanta Child Murders* (1985) (miniseries)
* *Windmills of the Gods* (1988)
* *Lincoln* (1988)
* *The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson* (1990)
* *Decoration Day* (1990)
* *Golden Girls* (1990)
* *Jazztime Tale* (1991) (voice)
* *Middle Ages* (1992–1993)
* *The Ernest Green Story* (1993)
* *The Stand* (1994) (miniseries)
* *Whitewash* (1994) (voice)
* *Mr. and Mrs. Loving* (1996)
* *Captive Heart: The James Mink Story* (1996)
* *The Wall* (1998)
* *Little Bill* (1999 - on hiatus) (voice)
* *Passing Glory* (1999)
* *Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years* (1999)
* *A Storm in Summer* (2000)
* *Finding Buck McHenry* (2000)
* *The Feast of All Saints* (2001) (miniseries)
* *Taking Back Our Town* (2001)
* *Their Eyes Were Watching God* (2005)
* *Meet Mary Pleasant* (2008)
* *America* (2009)


=== Teater ===

* *On Strivers Row* (1940)
* *Natural Man* (1941)
* *Starlight* (1942)
* *Three's a Family* (1943)
* *South Pacific* (1943)
* *Walk Hard* (1944)
* *Jeb* (1946)
* *Anna Lucasta* (1946) (replacement for [[Hilda Simms]])
* *Arsenic and Old Lace* (1946)
* *John Loves Mary* (1946)
* *A Long Way From Home* (1948)
* *The Smile of the World* (1949)
* *The World of Sholom Aleichem* (1953)
* *A Raisin in the Sun* (1959)
* *Purlie Victorious* (1961)
* *A Treasury of Negro World Writing* (1964)
* *King Lear* (1965)
* *The Taming of the Shrew* (1965)
* *The Talking Skull* (1965)
* *The Wedding Band* (1966)
* *Agamemnon* (1966)
* *The Birds* (1966)
* *Oresteia* (1966)
* *Boesman and Lena* (1970)
* *The Imaginary Invalid* (1971)
* *The Wedding Band* (1972)
* *Hamlet* (1975)
* *Bus Stop* (1979)
* *Twin-Bit Gardens* (1979)
* *Zora is My Name!* (1983)
* *Checkmates* (1988)
* *The Glass Menagerie* (1989)
* *The Disappearance* (1993)
* *Flying West* (1994)
* *Two Hahs-Hahs and a Homeboy* (1995)
* *My One Good Nerve: A Visit with Ruby Dee* (1996)
* *A Last Dance for Sybil* (2002)
* *Saint Lucy's Eyes* (2003)


=== Diskografi ===
* *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)

## Referanser


## Eksterne lenker
* 
* 
* 
* Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
* Archive of American Television interview
* Ruby Dee på Internet Off-Broadway Database
* Ruby Dee's oral history video excerpts på The National Visionary Leadership Project
* Ruby Dee Discography hos Smithsonian Folkways