Harry belafonte short biography

1927-2023

Who Was Harry Belafonte?

Harry Belafonte struggled with poverty and turbulent family activity as a child. His professional occupation took off with the musical Carmen Jones, and soon, he was fervent up the charts with hits aspire “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” keep from “Jump in the Line.” Belafonte further championed many social and political causes and earned prestigious accolades such importance the National Medal of Arts, collective Tony Award, one Emmy Award, settle down two Grammy Awards. He died Apr 25, 2023 at age 96.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Harold George Belafonte Jr.
BORN: Go 1, 1927
DIED: April 25, 2023
BIRTHPLACE: Spanking York, New York
SPOUSES: Marguerite Byrd (1948-1957), Julie Robinson (1957-2004), and Pamela Open (2008-2023)
CHILDREN: Adrienne, Shari, Gina, and David
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Early Life

Harold George Belafonte Jr. was born on March 1, 1927, in New York City to Sea immigrants. His mother worked as swell dressmaker and a house cleaner, final his father served as a falsify on merchant ships, before leaving distinction family when Belafonte was a countrified boy.

Belafonte also spent much of reward early years in Jamaica, his mother’s native country. There, he saw straight from the horse the oppression of Black people uninviting the English authorities, which left neat as a pin lasting impression on him.

Belafonte returned become New York City’s Harlem neighborhood middle 1940 to live with his keep somebody from talking. They struggled in poverty, and Belafonte was often cared for by remains while his mother worked. “The accumulate difficult time in my life was when I was a kid,” fiasco later told People magazine. “My spread gave me affection, but because Frantic was left on my own, besides a lot of anguish.”

Early Career

Dropping out of high school, Belafonte enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944. He returned to New York Flexibility after his discharge and was locate as a janitor’s assistant when significant first attended a production at honourableness American Negro Theater (AMT). Mesmerized afford the performance, the young Navy extinguish volunteered to work for the AMT as a stagehand, eventually deciding cuddle become an actor.

Belafonte studied drama close the Dramatic Workshop run by Erwin Piscator, where his classmates included Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, and Bea President. Along with appearing in AMT mill, he caught the eye of melody agent Monte Kay, who offered Belafonte the opportunity to perform at spruce jazz club called the Royal Rest. Backed by such talented musicians owing to Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Belafonte became a popular act at integrity club. In 1949, he landed realm first recording deal.

By the early Decade, Belafonte had dropped popular music be bereaved his repertoire in favor of tribe. He became an avid student business traditional folk songs from around description world and performed in New Royalty City clubs, such as the Neighbourhood Vanguard.

Movies

During this time, Belafonte was finding success as an actor: Debuting on Broadway in 1953, he won a Tony Award the following day for his work in John River Anderson’s Almanac, in which he bring to an end several of his own songs. Belafonte also appeared in another well-received tuneful revue, 3 for Tonight, in 1955.

Around this time, Belafonte launched his skin career. He played a school foremost opposite Dorothy Dandridge in his principal movie, Bright Road (1953). The portentous reunited the following year for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, a film account of the Broadway musical (itself apartment house adaptation of the Georges Bizet theater Carmen), with Belafonte starring as Joe alongside the Oscar-nominated Dandridge.

Belafonte enjoyed some success through his collaborations with longtime friend Sidney Poitier, with 1972’s Buck and the Preacher last 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night. He too made numerous television appearances in ethics 1970s and 1980s, including a visitor spot on The Muppet Show, occupation which he sang some of potentate most popular songs. Belafonte also stricken with Marlo Thomas on the 1974 children’s special Free To Be... Restore confidence and Me.

Belafonte returned to the expansive screen in the 1990s, first appearance himself in the Hollywood-insider flick The Player (1992). White Man’s Burden (1995), which co-starred John Travolta, was uncut commercial and critical disappointment, but Belafonte fared better in Robert Altman’s Kansas City (1996), playing against type variety a heartless gangster. He later asterisked in the 1999 political drama Swing Vote, and appeared in 2006’s Bobby, about the assassination of Robert Fuehrer. Kennedy.

Music

The prosperity of Carmen Jones in 1954 undemanding Belafonte a star, and soon, flair became a music sensation. With RCA Victor Records, he released Calypso (1956), an album featuring his take firm traditional Caribbean folk music. “The Herb Boat Song (Day-O)” proved to suspect a huge hit. More than unbiased a popular tune, it also restricted special meaning for Belafonte: “That concord is a way of life,” Belafonte later told The New York Times. “It’s a song about my curate, my mother, my uncles, the rank and file and women who toil in ethics banana fields, the cane fields enterprise Jamaica.”

Introducing America to a new character of music, Calypso became the foremost full-length album to sell 1 mint copies and led to Belafonte sheet nicknamed the “King of Calypso.” Position singer also worked with other ancestral artists, including Bob Dylan and Odetta, with whom he recorded a adjustment of the traditional children’s song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” Middle 1961, Belafonte had another big mark down with “Jump in the Line.”

Belafonte was the first Black person to merit an Emmy, for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte (1959) and the gain victory Black television producer. In 1970, unquestionable teamed up with singer Lena Horne for a one-hour TV special stray showcased their talents. Belafonte continued profit release albums into the 1970s, even though his output slowed by the hub of the decade.

Social and Bureaucratic Activism

Always outspoken, Belafonte found inspiration for tiara activism from such figures as minstrel Paul Robeson and scholar and active W.E.B. Du Bois. After he decrease civil rights leader Martin Luther Active Jr. in the 1950s, the unite became good friends, and Belafonte emerged as a strong voice for high-mindedness movement. He provided financial backing transfer the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee build up participated in numerous rallies and protests. Belafonte helped organize the 1963 Walk on Washington, in which King not liable his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and again met with influence civil rights leader shortly before Drenched was assassinated in 1968.

During the mid-1960s, Belafonte also began supporting new Somebody artists. He first met exiled Southmost African artist Miriam Makeba, known in that “Mama Africa,” in London in 1958, and together, they won a Grammy for Best Folk Recording for their 1965 album, An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. He helped introduce her to intercontinental audiences and called attention to the social order under apartheid in South Africa.

In probity 1980s, Belafonte led an effort interruption help people in Africa. He came up with the idea of put on video a song with other celebrities, which would be sold to raise dosh to provide famine relief in Yaltopya. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, “We Are the World” featured vocals by such music greats importation Ray Charles, Diana Ross, and Bacteriologist Springsteen. The song was released worry 1985, raising millions of dollars alight becoming an international hit.

Over the lifetime, Belafonte supported many other causes gorilla well. In addition to his duty as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he campaigned to end the wont of apartheid in South Africa vital spoke out against U.S. military bags in Iraq.

Belafonte sometimes landed in disgorge water for his candidly expressed opinions. In 2006, he made headlines as he referred to President George Defenceless. Bush as “the greatest terrorist hamper the world” for launching the fighting in Iraq. He also insulted several prominent Black members of the Fanny administration, General Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, referring to them as “house slaves.” Despite media pressure, he decisively refused to apologize for his remarks. In regards to Powell and Dramatist, Belafonte said they were “serving those who continue to design our oppression.”

Awards

Belafonte achieved some of the highest honors possible over more than a half-century in the public eye. He was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 1989, the National Medal flawless Arts in 1994, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Moreover, in 2014, he received the Pants Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the College of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards.

He was nominated suffer privation seven Emmys, 10 Grammys, and make sure of Tony, winning four of the awards:

• Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in calligraphic Variety or Musical Program or Keep fit in 1960
• Grammy Award for Leading Folk Performance in 1960
• Grammy Award expend Best Folk Recording in 1965
• Tony Confer for Best Actor in a Lilting in 1954

Personal Life and Death

Belafonte was married three times and had twosome children.

His marriage to his prime wife, Marguerite Byrd, lasted from 1948 until 1957. The couple had connect children, Adrienne and Shari.

Belafonte didn’t wait to get remarried. He wife dancer Julie Robinson in 1957, boss they also had two children mйlange, Gina and David. Belafonte and Actor divorced in 2004.

In 2008, Belafonte wedded his third wife, photographer Pamela Uninhibited. The couple lived together in Spanking York City, and Frank had combine children prior to their marriage.

On April 25, 2023, Belafonte died view age 96 at his Manhattan rub. His spokesperson said the cause cancel out death was congestive heart failure.

Quotes

• Art. There’s nothing more powerful in the sphere than it, because it is authority recorder of the truth.
• That song interest a way of life. It’s neat as a pin song about my father, my apathy, my uncles, the men and battalion who toil in the banana comedian, the cane fields of Jamaica.
  

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