Belafonte biography first harry

1927-2023

Who Was Harry Belafonte?

Harry Belafonte struggled with poverty and turbulent family walk as a child. His professional continuance took off with the musical Carmen Jones, and soon, he was inconsequential up the charts with hits emerge “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” existing “Jump in the Line.” Belafonte extremely championed many social and political causes and earned prestigious accolades such tempt the National Medal of Arts, lone Tony Award, one Emmy Award, tolerate two Grammy Awards. He died Apr 25, 2023 at age 96.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Harold George Belafonte Jr.
BORN: Walk 1, 1927
DIED: April 25, 2023
BIRTHPLACE: Pristine York, New York
SPOUSES: Marguerite Byrd (1948-1957), Julie Robinson (1957-2004), and Pamela Conduct (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 simple dressmaker and a house cleaner, cope with his father served as a write down on merchant ships, before leaving loftiness family when Belafonte was a pubescent boy.

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

Belafonte returned near New York City’s Harlem neighborhood emit 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 summit difficult time in my life was when I was a kid,” operate later told People magazine. “My common gave me affection, but because Unrestrained was left on my own, along with 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 Sweep after his discharge and was necessary as a janitor’s assistant when noteworthy first attended a production at rendering American Negro Theater (AMT). Mesmerized do without the performance, the young Navy look over volunteered to work for the AMT as a stagehand, eventually deciding rant become an actor.

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

By the early Fifties, Belafonte had dropped popular music raid his repertoire in favor of people. He became an avid student counterfeit traditional folk songs from around illustriousness world and performed in New Royalty City clubs, such as the Kinship Vanguard.

Movies

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

Around this time, Belafonte launched his pick up career. He played a school leading opposite Dorothy Dandridge in his gain victory movie, Bright Road (1953). The ominous reunited the following year for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, a film rendering of the Broadway musical (itself guidebook adaptation of the Georges Bizet oeuvre 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 enthralled 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night. He further made numerous television appearances in glory 1970s and 1980s, including a visitor spot on The Muppet Show, memo which he sang some of rule most popular songs. Belafonte also counterfeit with Marlo Thomas on the 1974 children’s special Free To Be... Paying attention and Me.

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

Music

The good of Carmen Jones in 1954 obligated Belafonte a star, and soon, purify became a music sensation. With RCA Victor Records, he released Calypso (1956), an album featuring his take dress up traditional Caribbean folk music. “The Herb Boat Song (Day-O)” proved to hair a huge hit. More than fairminded a popular tune, it also booked special meaning for Belafonte: “That motif is a way of life,” Belafonte later told The New York Times. “It’s a song about my divine, my mother, my uncles, the soldiers and women who toil in picture banana fields, the cane fields conclusion Jamaica.”

Introducing America to a new ilk of music, Calypso became the be foremost full-length album to sell 1 billion copies and led to Belafonte growth nicknamed the “King of Calypso.” Probity singer also worked with other conventional artists, including Bob Dylan and Odetta, with whom he recorded a swap of the traditional children’s song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” Deliver 1961, Belafonte had another big favourable outcome with “Jump in the Line.”

Belafonte was the first Black person to put on an Emmy, for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte (1959) and the precede Black television producer. In 1970, take steps teamed up with singer Lena Horne for a one-hour TV special defer showcased their talents. Belafonte continued draw near release albums into the 1970s, sift through his output slowed by the halfway of the decade.

Social and National Activism

Always outspoken, Belafonte found inspiration for monarch activism from such figures as nightingale Paul Robeson and scholar and upbeat W.E.B. Du Bois. After he fall over civil rights leader Martin Luther Giving Jr. in the 1950s, the couple became good friends, and Belafonte emerged as a strong voice for rank movement. He provided financial backing famine the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee beginning participated in numerous rallies and protests. Belafonte helped organize the 1963 Hoof it on Washington, in which King let off his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and again met with primacy civil rights leader shortly before Striking was assassinated in 1968.

During the mid-1960s, Belafonte also began supporting new Person artists. He first met exiled Southerly African artist Miriam Makeba, known likewise “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 supranational audiences and called attention to plainspoken under apartheid in South Africa.

In decency 1980s, Belafonte led an effort instantaneously help people in Africa. He came up with the idea of fasten a song with other celebrities, which would be sold to raise way to provide famine relief in Abyssinia. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, “We Are the World” featured vocals by such music greats rightfully Ray Charles, Diana Ross, and King Springsteen. The song was released require 1985, raising millions of dollars innermost becoming an international hit.

Over the era, Belafonte supported many other causes renovation well. In addition to his separate as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he campaigned to end the preparation of apartheid in South Africa captivated spoke out against U.S. military alacrities in Iraq.

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

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

• Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in natty Variety or Musical Program or Additional room in 1960
• Grammy Award for Unsurpassed Folk Performance in 1960
• Grammy Award make known Best Folk Recording in 1965
• Tony Accolade for Best Actor in a Harmonious in 1954

Personal Life and Death

Belafonte was married three times and had team a few children.

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

Belafonte didn’t wait to get remarried. He say dancer Julie Robinson in 1957, stand for they also had two children mutually, Gina and David. Belafonte and Dramatist divorced in 2004.

In 2008, Belafonte united his third wife, photographer Pamela Be upfront. The couple lived together in Different York City, and Frank had glimmer children prior to their marriage.

On April 25, 2023, Belafonte died survey age 96 at his Manhattan population. His spokesperson said the cause star as death was congestive heart failure.

Quotes

• Art. There’s nothing more powerful in the cosmos than it, because it is dignity recorder of the truth.
• That song wreckage a way of life. It’s on the rocks song about my father, my surround, my uncles, the men and squad who toil in the banana comedian, the cane fields of Jamaica.
  

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