Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award-winning singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte passed away at age 96 on Tuesday of congestive heart failure. Belafonte passed quietly at his home in New York, according to his publicist.
Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. was born on March 1, 1927 in Harlem, New York. From 1932 to 1940, Belafonte lived with his maternal grandmother in her native country of Jamaica where he witnessed firsthand the oppression of Black people by the English colonizers, which left a lasting impression on him. Upon returning to New York City, he attended and dropped out of George Washington High School. He then joined the U.S. Navy and served during World War II.
Belafonte returned to New York City after he was discharged. He found work as a janitor’s assistant. One of the tenants where he worked gave Belafonte two tickets to see the American Negro Theater (AMT) as a tip. He was so mesmerized by the performance, that he volunteered to work for the AMT as a stagehand, and from there, he eventually decided to become an actor.
By the end of the 1940s, Belafonte took acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City with German director Erwin Piscator alongside talents such as Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the AMT. He subsequently received a Tony Award in 1954 for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. He also starred in the 1955 Broadway revue 3 for Tonight with Gower Champion.
In order to pay for his acting classes, Belafonte worked as a club singer in New York. As a matter of fact, the first time he performed in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach, and Miles Davis! Belafonte originally launched his music career as a pop singer, but fell in love with folk music and learned material through the Library of Congress’s American folk songs archives. He signed a record contract with RCA Victor and recorded music, including his signature song Matilda, from 1953 to 1974.
After a successful run in Las Vegas, Belafonte rose to fame with his breakthrough album Calypso which was the first LP in the world to sell more than 1 million copies within a year. In 1966 Belafonte won Best Folk Recording for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba, and in 2000 he earned the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
In addition to winning a Tony Award, two Grammy awards, and releasing a top selling album, Belafonte also launched his film career, playing a school principal opposite Dorothy Dandridge in his first movie, Bright Road. The pair reunited the following year for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, a film adaptation of the Broadway musical (itself an adaptation of the Georges Bizet opera Carmen), with Belafonte starring as Joe alongside the Oscar-nominated Dandridge. Ironically, Belafonte’s and Dandridge’s singing in the film were both dubbed by opera singers because both voices had been deemed unsuitable for their roles.
Over the years, Belafonte appeared in 14 films including Spike Lee’s Academy Award winning film BlacKkKlansman, where he played an elderly civil rights pioneer in his final appearance on the big screen. His extensive body of work earned him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 6th Annual Governors Awards.
Belefonte also had quite a career on the small screen, sharing his talent in 26 TV projects including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Nat King Cole Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Tonight Show, The Muppet Show, and the mini-series When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, just to name a few. Once again, Belafonte was recognized for his talent when he was the first Black man to win an Emmy when he won The Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte.
In addition to his work in entertainment, Belefonte was also known for his political activism. He was a close friend and confidante of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped King organize the 1963 March on Washington. He also contributed to the 1961 Freedom Rides and supported voter registration drives. Belefonte was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. He also acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues
In 2016, Belafonte endorsed Vermont U.S. senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries and he was an honorary co-chairman of the Women’s March on Washington, which took place on January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.
Over the years, Belafonte supported many other causes as well. In addition to his role as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he campaigned to end the practice of apartheid in South Africa and spoke out against U.S. military actions in Iraq.
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As news of his passing spread, many took to social media to pay their respects:
Belafonte is survived by his wife, Pamela Fran, four children, two stepchildren, and eight grandchildren.
