RUBY DEE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Ruby Dee was born on October 27th, 1924 in Cleveland, Ohio with the birth name Ruby Anne Wallace. Her mother was Gladys Hightower and her father, Marshall Edward Nathaniel made his living as a waiter, cook and porter. When she was young her mother left the family and her father was left to raise Dee, her two sisters and her brother.
Her father Marshal soon married a school teacher, Emma Benson and the family moved to Harlem, New York where Dee spent her childhood years. She attended Hunter College High School and then went to Hunter College and earned two degrees in French and Spanish.
She developed an interest for the performing arts while at College and joined the American Negro Theater (ANT). It was then that she took on the stage name Ruby Dee. While at college, Dee also took a class in radio training and was offered a small part in the radio serial called, "Nora Drake".
In 1945, upon completing college she used her degree to work as a translator, but always knew in her heart that one day she we follow her pursuit of a career in the entertainment industry. Only one year later, Dee was lucky enough to get her first break into Broadway with a role in, "Jeb". She also met Ossie Davis, an actor who she would later marry on December 9th, 1948.
In 1946, Dee became involved in film working on, "Love in Syncopation" and in 1950 she worked on, "The Jackie Robinson Story", in which she began to really receive recognition for being a good actress. Another well known film was, "Edge of the City" (1957).
Dee continued to work in film, but also chose to keep up her theater work. She worked in several plays such as, "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Purlie Victorious". She later created her stage role on film for, "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961). Dee also appeared in some controversial political films such as, "Gone are the Days" (1963) and "The Incident" (1967) which actually assisted in helping other African American actors and film makers get accepted into the industry. At the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut in 1965, Dee became the first African American actress to portray major roles on stage. Some of her other more well known film roles, "Buck and The Preacher" (1972), "Roots" (1978) and "Do the Right Thing" (1989),
Ruby Dee is not only a talented actress, she is an amazing woman and is highly involved in many good causes. She was also the receiver of various honors and awards. Dee is an active member of the national Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She and her husband were also very good friends with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Together with her husband Davis, they produced, "The Ruby Dee/Ossie Davis Story Hour" for the National Black Network and in 2007 the couple wrote a autobiography discussing their political beliefs and personal information on their marriage.
As an actress, Dee was honored as well with various Awards. In 1971 she received a Drama Desk Award for outstanding performance for, "Boesman and Lena" and an Obie Award for Best Performance by an Actress for the same production. She was nominated in total for eight Emmy Awards and won one for her role in a television film, "Decoration Day" (1990). Alongside her husband, Davis and Dee were awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2001 and again in 2004 they were honored together receiving the Kennedy Centers Honors. Then in 2007 the couple again earned another honor, the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, "With Ossie and Ruby: On This Life Together".
Dee continued to work as an actress, hold on to a successful marriage and continued to support causes she believed in well into late 2000. For her portrayal of the character Mama Lucas in, "American Gangster" (2007), Dee was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the SAG award for the same film. This made her the second oldest nominee for Best Supporting actress to date, only Gloria Stuart for her role on, "Titanic" was the oldest at age 87. In 2010, another honor was given to Dee, The Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, "America".
Overall, Ruby Dee appeared in over 50 films. She worked as an actress, activist, playwright, poet, screen writer and even a journalist. Dee and Davis had three children together, Guy Davis, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammed. Ruby Dee is also a survivor of breast cancer which she has been battling for thirty years. She was inducted into the Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame on March 30th, 2007 and in 2009, Princeton University gave her an Honorary Degree. Dee lost her husband in 2005 and continues to battle breast cancer and be an active part of society.
Filmography
2010 Dream Street
2010 Red & Blue Marbles
2010 Video Girl
2010 Drama Mamas!
2010 The Middle of Nowhere
2010 Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age
2009 The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
2009 A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School
2007 All About Us
2007 American Gangster
2007 Steam
2006 No. 2
2006 The Way Back Home
2006 Lockdown, USA
2003 Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003 Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
2002 Baby of the Family
1999 Baby Geniuses
1998 A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner
1996 Mr. & Mrs. Loving
1995 Just Cause
1997 A Simple Wish
1994 The Stand
1993 Cop and a Half
1992 Color Adjustment
1991 Jungle Fever
1990 Love at Large
1989 Do the Right Thing
1982 Cat People
1976 Countdown at Kusini
1973 Wattstax
1972 Buck and the Preacher
1972 Black Girl
1970 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1968 Up Tight!
1967 The Incident
1963 The Balcony
1963 Gone Are the Days!
1961 A Raisin in the Sun
1961 Purlie Victorious
1959 Take a Giant Step
1958 Our Virgin Island
1958 St. Louis Blues
1957 Edge of the City
1956 The Great American Pastime
1954 Go, Man, Go!
1951 The Tall Target
1950 The Jackie Robinson Story
1950 No Way Out
1949 The Fight Never Ends
1948 What a Guy
1946 That Man of Mine
