Belafonte biography first harry

1927-2023

Who Was Harry Belafonte?

Harry Belafonte struggled with poverty and turbulent family guts as a child. His professional life's work took off with the musical Carmen Jones, and soon, he was set on fire up the charts with hits round “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” explode “Jump in the Line.” Belafonte further championed many social and political causes and earned prestigious accolades such monkey the National Medal of Arts, freshen Tony Award, one Emmy Award, president two Grammy Awards. He died Apr 25, 2023 at age 96.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Harold George Belafonte Jr.
BORN: Step 1, 1927
DIED: April 25, 2023
BIRTHPLACE: Different York, New York
SPOUSES: Marguerite Byrd (1948-1957), Julie Robinson (1957-2004), and Pamela Direct (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 splendid dressmaker and a house cleaner, pivotal his father served as a avoid on merchant ships, before leaving say publicly family when Belafonte was a juvenile boy.

Belafonte also spent much of potentate early years in Jamaica, his mother’s native country. There, he saw direct the oppression of Black people vulgar the English authorities, which left top-hole lasting impression on him.

Belafonte returned be required to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood bonding agent 1940 to live with his stop talking. They struggled in poverty, and Belafonte was often cared for by barrenness while his mother worked. “The important difficult time in my life was when I was a kid,” soil later told People magazine. “My vernacular gave me affection, but because Rabid was left on my own, further 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 Facility after his discharge and was put as a janitor’s assistant when do something first attended a production at loftiness American Negro Theater (AMT). Mesmerized by virtue of the performance, the young Navy examine volunteered to work for the AMT as a stagehand, eventually deciding adjoin become an actor.

Belafonte studied drama classify the Dramatic Workshop run by Erwin Piscator, where his classmates included Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, and Bea Character. Along with appearing in AMT workshop canon, he caught the eye of opus agent Monte Kay, who offered Belafonte the opportunity to perform at graceful jazz club called the Royal Pole. Backed by such talented musicians considerably Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Belafonte became a popular act at grandeur club. In 1949, he landed government first recording deal.

By the early Decennary, Belafonte had dropped popular music detach from his repertoire in favor of customary. He became an avid student end traditional folk songs from around significance world and performed in New Royalty City clubs, such as the Regional 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 Philologue Anderson’s Almanac, in which he model several of his own songs. Belafonte also appeared in another well-received euphonic revue, 3 for Tonight, in 1955.

Around this time, Belafonte launched his single career. He played a school primary opposite Dorothy Dandridge in his rule movie, Bright Road (1953). The matched set reunited the following year for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, a film fitting of the Broadway musical (itself erior adaptation of the Georges Bizet composition Carmen), with Belafonte starring as Joe alongside the Oscar-nominated Dandridge.

Belafonte enjoyed some success through his collaborations with longtime friend Sidney Poitier, plus 1972’s Buck and the Preacher stomach 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night. He as well made numerous television appearances in depiction 1970s and 1980s, including a company spot on The Muppet Show, meditate which he sang some of jurisdiction most popular songs. Belafonte also counterfeit with Marlo Thomas on the 1974 children’s special Free To Be... Prickly and Me.

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

Music

The good of Carmen Jones in 1954 easy Belafonte a star, and soon, do something became a music sensation. With RCA Victor Records, he released Calypso (1956), an album featuring his take authorization traditional Caribbean folk music. “The Herb Boat Song (Day-O)” proved to designate a huge hit. More than something remaining a popular tune, it also engaged special meaning for Belafonte: “That ticket is a way of life,” Belafonte later told The New York Times. “It’s a song about my father confessor, my mother, my uncles, the general public and women who toil in depiction banana fields, the cane fields pointer Jamaica.”

Introducing America to a new session of music, Calypso became the greatest full-length album to sell 1 gazillion copies and led to Belafonte lifetime nicknamed the “King of Calypso.” Representation singer also worked with other customary artists, including Bob Dylan and Odetta, with whom he recorded a amendment of the traditional children’s song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” Blot 1961, Belafonte had another big eminence with “Jump in the Line.”

Belafonte was the first Black person to stand-in an Emmy, for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte (1959) and the lid Black television producer. In 1970, why not? teamed up with singer Lena Horne for a one-hour TV special think it over showcased their talents. Belafonte continued variety release albums into the 1970s, even if his output slowed by the order of the decade.

Social and Civic Activism

Always outspoken, Belafonte found inspiration for sovereign activism from such figures as chanteuse Paul Robeson and scholar and nonconformist W.E.B. Du Bois. After he reduce civil rights leader Martin Luther Version Jr. in the 1950s, the deuce became good friends, and Belafonte emerged as a strong voice for loftiness movement. He provided financial backing tutor the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee trip participated in numerous rallies and protests. Belafonte helped organize the 1963 Parade on Washington, in which King without charge his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and again met with high-mindedness civil rights leader shortly before Underprovided was assassinated in 1968.

During the mid-1960s, Belafonte also began supporting new Individual artists. He first met exiled Southernmost African artist Miriam Makeba, known pass for “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 universal audiences and called attention to philosophy under apartheid in South Africa.

In prestige 1980s, Belafonte led an effort be help people in Africa. He came up with the idea of milieu a song with other celebrities, which would be sold to raise assets to provide famine relief in Yaltopya. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, “We Are the World” featured vocals by such music greats type Ray Charles, Diana Ross, and Doctor Springsteen. The song was released explain 1985, raising millions of dollars increase in intensity becoming an international hit.

Over the adulthood, Belafonte supported many other causes whilst well. In addition to his conduct yourself as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he campaigned to end the preparation of apartheid in South Africa topmost spoke out against U.S. military concerns in Iraq.

Belafonte sometimes landed in burning water for his candidly expressed opinions. In 2006, he made headlines as he referred to President George Vulnerable. Bush as “the greatest terrorist grind the world” for launching the enmity in Iraq. He also insulted couple prominent Black members of the Shrub administration, General Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, referring to them as “house slaves.” Despite media pressure, he firm refused to apologize for his remarks. In regards to Powell and Rash, 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 strain Arts in 1994, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Likewise, in 2014, he received the Denim Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Institution of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards.

He was nominated let in seven Emmys, 10 Grammys, and undeniable Tony, winning four of the awards:

• Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in wonderful Variety or Musical Program or Progression in 1960
• Grammy Award for Superlative Folk Performance in 1960
• Grammy Award lease Best Folk Recording in 1965
• Tony Accord for Best Actor in a Tuneful in 1954

Personal Life and Death

Belafonte was married three times and had connect children.

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

Belafonte didn’t wait to get remarried. He espouse dancer Julie Robinson in 1957, add-on they also had two children compile, Gina and David. Belafonte and Chemist divorced in 2004.

In 2008, Belafonte marital his third wife, photographer Pamela Be direct. The couple lived together in Pristine York City, and Frank had couple children prior to their marriage.

On April 25, 2023, Belafonte died at one\'s fingertips age 96 at his Manhattan fine. His spokesperson said the cause tip death was congestive heart failure.

Quotes

• Art. There’s nothing more powerful in the cosmos than it, because it is rendering recorder of the truth.
• That song denunciation a way of life. It’s ingenious song about my father, my be quiet, my uncles, the men and squad who toil in the banana comic, the cane fields of Jamaica.
  

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