Ruby Dee Dies at 91
Ruby Dee, one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Ms Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife of the main character, Walter Lee Younger, played by Sidney Poitier, and the daughter-in-law of the leading female character, the family matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil).
The loyal but worried loved one was a role Ms Dee played frequently, in films like "The Jackie Robinson Story" (in which she played the wife of the pioneering black ballplayer, who starred as himself) and "No Way Out," a tough racial drama in which she played the sister of a prison doctor (Mr Poitier).
Over the course of Ms Dee's career, the lives of American blacks, both extraordinary and ordinary, belatedly emerged as rich subject matter for mainstream theater productions and films, and black performers went from being consigned to marginal and often belittling roles to starring in Hollywood megahits.
Ms Dee went from being a disciple of Paul Robeson to starring with Mr Poitier on Broadway.
Ms Dee picketed Broadway theaters that were not employing black actors for their shows and spoke out against film crews that hired few or no blacks.
(It had also been filmed by John Ford.) Mr Dassin and Ms Dee shifted the tale of betrayal among revolutionaries to 1960s Cleveland; Ms Dee played a welfare mother who helped feed her family by resorting to prostitution.
By the mid-1940s, when she graduated from Hunter College, Ms Dee was already a working actress, having appeared on Broadway and in productions of the American Negro Theater, then a fledgling professional company housed in the basement of the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library.
Hired as the understudy for the role of Libby, the title character's loving girlfriend, Ms Dee not only replaced the original actress in the role before opening night but also fell in love with the star, Ossie Davis.
The partnership between Ms Dee and Mr Davis was romantic, familial, professional, artistic and political, and they jointly received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton.
Davis took over the stage role of Walter Younger from Mr Poitier, and in "Purlie Victorious," Mr Davis's own broad satire about a charismatic preacher in the Jim Crow South, on Broadway in 1961 and in the 1963 film version, "Gone Are the Days!" Ms Dee and Mr Davis stood together, far to the political left, on behalf of numerous causes.
Ms Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife of the main character, Walter Lee Younger, played by Sidney Poitier, and the daughter-in-law of the leading female character, the family matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil).
The loyal but worried loved one was a role Ms Dee played frequently, in films like "The Jackie Robinson Story" (in which she played the wife of the pioneering black ballplayer, who starred as himself) and "No Way Out," a tough racial drama in which she played the sister of a prison doctor (Mr Poitier).
Over the course of Ms Dee's career, the lives of American blacks, both extraordinary and ordinary, belatedly emerged as rich subject matter for mainstream theater productions and films, and black performers went from being consigned to marginal and often belittling roles to starring in Hollywood megahits.
Ms Dee went from being a disciple of Paul Robeson to starring with Mr Poitier on Broadway.
Ms Dee picketed Broadway theaters that were not employing black actors for their shows and spoke out against film crews that hired few or no blacks.
(It had also been filmed by John Ford.) Mr Dassin and Ms Dee shifted the tale of betrayal among revolutionaries to 1960s Cleveland; Ms Dee played a welfare mother who helped feed her family by resorting to prostitution.
By the mid-1940s, when she graduated from Hunter College, Ms Dee was already a working actress, having appeared on Broadway and in productions of the American Negro Theater, then a fledgling professional company housed in the basement of the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library.
Hired as the understudy for the role of Libby, the title character's loving girlfriend, Ms Dee not only replaced the original actress in the role before opening night but also fell in love with the star, Ossie Davis.
The partnership between Ms Dee and Mr Davis was romantic, familial, professional, artistic and political, and they jointly received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton.
Davis took over the stage role of Walter Younger from Mr Poitier, and in "Purlie Victorious," Mr Davis's own broad satire about a charismatic preacher in the Jim Crow South, on Broadway in 1961 and in the 1963 film version, "Gone Are the Days!" Ms Dee and Mr Davis stood together, far to the political left, on behalf of numerous causes.
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