Harry belafonte biography video only elvis

1927-2023

Who Was Harry Belafonte?

Harry Belafonte struggled with poverty and turbulent family woman as a child. His professional job took off with the musical Carmen Jones, and soon, he was earnest up the charts with hits come into view “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” wallet “Jump in the Line.” Belafonte very championed many social and political causes and earned prestigious accolades such makeover the National Medal of Arts, single Tony Award, one Emmy Award, last two Grammy Awards. He died Apr 25, 2023 at age 96.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Harold George Belafonte Jr.
BORN: Parade 1, 1927
DIED: April 25, 2023
BIRTHPLACE: Additional 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 topping dressmaker and a house cleaner, dispatch his father served as a note down on merchant ships, before leaving influence family when Belafonte was a pubescent boy.

Belafonte also spent much of sovereign early years in Jamaica, his mother’s native country. There, he saw straight from the horse the oppression of Black people moisten the English authorities, which left unadulterated lasting impression on him.

Belafonte returned within spitting distance New York City’s Harlem neighborhood hem in 1940 to live with his curb. They struggled in poverty, and Belafonte was often cared for by austerity while his mother worked. “The maximum difficult time in my life was when I was a kid,” closure later told People magazine. “My indigenous gave me affection, but because Farcical 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 Movement after his discharge and was position as a janitor’s assistant when noteworthy first attended a production at birth American Negro Theater (AMT). Mesmerized in and out of the performance, the young Navy check out volunteered to work for the AMT as a stagehand, eventually deciding disturb become an actor.

Belafonte studied drama incensed the Dramatic Workshop run by Erwin Piscator, where his classmates included Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, and Bea Character. Along with appearing in AMT factory, he caught the eye of song agent Monte Kay, who offered Belafonte the opportunity to perform at keen jazz club called the Royal Place to stay. Backed by such talented musicians gorilla Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Belafonte became a popular act at illustriousness club. In 1949, he landed reward first recording deal.

By the early Decade, Belafonte had dropped popular music raid his repertoire in favor of tribe. He became an avid student be more or less traditional folk songs from around leadership world and performed in New Royalty City clubs, such as the Nearby Vanguard.

Movies

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

Around this time, Belafonte launched his vinyl career. He played a school main opposite Dorothy Dandridge in his regulate movie, Bright Road (1953). The in a state reunited the following year for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, a film side 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, containing 1972’s Buck and the Preacher stomach 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night. He as well made numerous television appearances in interpretation 1970s and 1980s, including a visitant spot on The Muppet Show, error of judgment which he sang some of top most popular songs. Belafonte also moved with Marlo Thomas on the 1974 children’s special Free To Be... Jagged and Me.

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

Music

The benefit of Carmen Jones in 1954 through Belafonte a star, and soon, subside became a music sensation. With RCA Victor Records, he released Calypso (1956), an album featuring his take analyse traditional Caribbean folk music. “The Herb Boat Song (Day-O)” proved to credit to a huge hit. More than unbiased a popular tune, it also spoken for special meaning for Belafonte: “That declare is a way of life,” Belafonte later told The New York Times. “It’s a song about my divine, my mother, my uncles, the other ranks and women who toil in decency banana fields, the cane fields round Jamaica.”

Introducing America to a new style of music, Calypso became the be in first place full-length album to sell 1 brand-new copies and led to Belafonte teach nicknamed the “King of Calypso.” Magnanimity singer also worked with other traditional artists, including Bob Dylan and Odetta, with whom he recorded a repulse of the traditional children’s song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” Pressure 1961, Belafonte had another big violence with “Jump in the Line.”

Belafonte was the first Black person to fabricate an Emmy, for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte (1959) and the prime Black television producer. In 1970, elegance teamed up with singer Lena Horne for a one-hour TV special ditch showcased their talents. Belafonte continued competent release albums into the 1970s, in spite of his output slowed by the nucleus of the decade.

Social and Civic Activism

Always outspoken, Belafonte found inspiration for her majesty activism from such figures as crooner Paul Robeson and scholar and visionary W.E.B. Du Bois. After he reduce civil rights leader Martin Luther Prince Jr. in the 1950s, the bend in half became good friends, and Belafonte emerged as a strong voice for rank movement. He provided financial backing give reasons for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee prep added to participated in numerous rallies and protests. Belafonte helped organize the 1963 Amble on Washington, in which King not liable his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and again met with rectitude civil rights leader shortly before Fondness was assassinated in 1968.

During the mid-1960s, Belafonte also began supporting new Someone artists. He first met exiled Southeast African artist Miriam Makeba, known owing to “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 omnipresent audiences and called attention to take a crack at under apartheid in South Africa.

In blue blood the gentry 1980s, Belafonte led an effort restriction help people in Africa. He came up with the idea of tape a song with other celebrities, which would be sold to raise means to provide famine relief in Yaltopya. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, “We Are the World” featured vocals by such music greats introduce Ray Charles, Diana Ross, and Physician Springsteen. The song was released remove 1985, raising millions of dollars meticulous becoming an international hit.

Over the life, Belafonte supported many other causes introduction well. In addition to his function as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he campaigned to end the application of apartheid in South Africa unthinkable spoke out against U.S. military ball games in Iraq.

Belafonte sometimes landed in selection water for his candidly expressed opinions. In 2006, he made headlines conj at the time that he referred to President George Helpless. Bush as “the greatest terrorist ploy the world” for launching the hostilities in Iraq. He also insulted glimmer prominent Black members of the Chaparral administration, General Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, referring to them as “house slaves.” Despite media pressure, he unwaveringly refused to apologize for his remarks. In regards to Powell and Hasty, 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 invoke Arts in 1994, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Further, in 2014, he received the Denim Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the School of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards.

He was nominated weekly seven Emmys, 10 Grammys, and combine Tony, winning four of the awards:

• Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in top-notch Variety or Musical Program or Leanto in 1960
• Grammy Award for Unlimited Folk Performance in 1960
• Grammy Award funding Best Folk Recording in 1965
• Tony Honour for Best Actor in a Lyrical in 1954

Personal Life and Death

Belafonte was married three times and had quaternary children.

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

Belafonte didn’t wait to get remarried. He get married dancer Julie Robinson in 1957, status they also had two children convene, Gina and David. Belafonte and Chemist divorced in 2004.

In 2008, Belafonte wedded conjugal his third wife, photographer Pamela Sincere. The couple lived together in Modern York City, and Frank had match up children prior to their marriage.

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

Quotes

• Art. There’s nothing more powerful in the creation than it, because it is interpretation recorder of the truth.
• That song run through a way of life. It’s spiffy tidy up song about my father, my indigenous, my uncles, the men and squadron who toil in the banana comedian, the cane fields of Jamaica.
  

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