Ruby Dee (Cleveland, Ohio, USA, October 27, 1922 - New Rochelle, New York, USA, June 11, 2014)


Ruby Dee was an American film, television and theatre actress, poet and activist for civil rights. She was born as Ruby Ann Wallace, and upon graduation from high school, she enrolled to Hunter College from which she graduated in French and Spanish in 1944. She was interested in acting and in 1940 she got a role in a theater production in Harlem. Three years later she made her debut on Broadway and afterwards appeared in many plays. She made her feature film debut in the musical That Man of Mine (1946). Her first bigger role was the one of baseball star Jackie Robinson’s wife in the biographical film The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), starring Robinson as himself. Her other important films from that period include the drama Edge of the City (1957) by Martin Rittin which she stars with Poitier and the musical St. Louis Blues (1958) starring the musical legends such as Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson. In 1946, she met her future husband Ossie Davis on Broadway. They got married two years later and during their careers they often worked together in the theater and on film. In 1959, she starred on Broadway with Sidney Poitier in the play A Raisin in The Sun. Both of them as well as the director were nominated for the theatre award Tony. Three years later they starred in the film adaptation of the play, directed by Daniel Petrie. Since then Ruby Dee was most remembered for that role. Suring the 1960’s she starred in many TV series and appeared somewhat less on film. She was one of the few black actresses who had the opportunity to star in leading roles on television at the time. She starred in many episodes of the TV series Peyton Place (1968-1969), and some of her more important films are Gone Are the Days! (1963), based on her husband’s screenplay who also starred in it, and the crime drama The Incident (1967). In 1965, she became the first black actress who had a leading role at the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut. Heater plays, TV and feature films. She worked with Poitier again on the western Buck and the Preacher (1972), which he directed and also starred in. Then she acted in Countdown at Kusini (1976), directed by her husband. She had a smaller role in Paul Schrader’s Cat People (1982) and then starred again with her husband in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). During the 1980’s she wrote and published several books for children as well a collection of short stories and poems "My Last Good Nerve". After her previous four nominations, in 1991 she won the Emmy award as Best Supporting Actress in the TV film Decoration Day (1990) starring James Garner. Once more she worked with her husband and Spike Lee on his film Jungle Fever (1991), and appeared in the thriller Just Cause (1995). Even though she remained quite active, she once more gained attention of a wider audience when she starred in Ridley Scott’s biopic American Gangster (2007). Even though she was in the film for only ten minutes that was enough to receive a nomination for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in 2008. She did not win the Oscar, but received the SAG award (Screen Actors Guild). Since her youth, Dee and her husband were active in the fight for the civil rights. They took part in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King held his famous speech in 1963. They were friends with Malcolm X, and Ruby held eulogies on both his and King’s funerals. In 1999, Ossie and Ruby were arrested during a protest in New York, which was organized after the police killed an unarmed African immigrant. In the following year, they received the SAG award for life-time achievement. In 1998, they published their autobiography "With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together" 1998. Dee’s husband passed away in 2005 and she received the Grammy award for the audio book of the same memories as Best Spoken Album in 2007.








Filmography:

King Dog (in making)

1982 (2013)

Betty and Coretta (2013) (TV)

A Thousand Words (2012)

Politics of Love (2011)

Video Girl (2011)

Red & Blue Marbles (2011)

Dream Street (2010)

The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll (2009)

America (2009) (TV)

Steam (2007)

American Gangster (2007)

All About Us (2007)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2007) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Way Back Home (2006)

No. 2 (2006)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) (TV)

Little Bill (1999-2002) (TV series, 20 episode, voice)

Baby of the Family (2002)

Taking Back Our Town (2001) (TV)

Feast of All Saints (2001) (TV)

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (2000) (TV series, 1 episode)

Finding Buck McHenry (2000) (TV)

A Storm in Summer (2000) (TV)

Touched by an Angel (1999) (TV series, 1 episode)

Shelly Fisher (1999) (TV)

Delany Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) (TV)

Baby Geniuses (1999)

Passing Glory (1999) (TV)

Cosby (1999) (TV series, 1 episode)

Promised Land (1998) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Wall (1998) (TV)

A Simple Wish (1997)

Stories from the Edge (1996) (TV)

Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (1996) (TV)

Mr. and Mrs. Loving (1996) (TV)

Street Gear (1994-1995) (TV series, 13 episode)

American Masters (1995) (TV series, 1 episode, narrator)

Just Cause (1995)

Tuesday Morning Ride (1995)

Whitewash (1994) (TV, voice)

The Stand (1994) (TV series, 4 episodes)

Murjak i pol (Cop and ˝, 1993)

Evening Shade (1993) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Ernest Green Story (1993) (TV)

The Poetry Hall of Fame (1993) (TV)

Middle Ages (1992) (TV series)

Jazztime Tale (1991) (TV, voice)

Jungle Fever (1991)

Decoration Day (1990) (TV)

The Golden Girls (1990) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990) (TV)

China Beach (1990) (TV series, 1 episode)

American Playhouse (1985-1990) (TV series, 2 episode)

Love at Large (1990)

The American Experience (1990) (TV series, 1 episode, narrator)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Lincoln (1988) (mini TV series)

Windmills of the Gods (1988) (TV)

Spenser: For Hire (1987) (TV series, 1 episode)

Crown Dick (1987) (TV)

The Atlanta Child Murders (1985) (mini TV series)

Go Tell It on the Mountain (1984)

Long Day's Journey Into Night (1982) (TV)

Cat People (1982)

Ossie and Ruby! (1980) (TV series)

All God's Children (1980) (TV)

The Torture of Mothers (1980)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) (TV)

Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (TV series, 3 episode)

Watch Your Mouth (1978) (TV series, 1 episode)

Countdown at Kusini (1976)

Police Woman (1975) (TV series, 1 episode)

Wedding Band (1974) (TV)

The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People (1974) (TV series, 1 episode)

It's Good to Be Alive (1974) (TV)

Tenafly (1973) (TV series, 1 episode)

Chelsea D.H.O. (1973) (TV)

Black Girl (1972)

Buck and the Preacher (1972)

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (1972) (TV)

The Sheriff (1971) (TV)

Peyton Place (1968-1969) (TV series, 25 episode)

The Bold Ones: The Protectors (1969) (TV series, 1 episode)

Uptight (1968)

The Guiding Light (1952) (TV series)

The Incident (1967)

Armchair Theatre (1966) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Defenders (1965) (TV series, 1 episode)

East Side/West Side (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Great Adventure (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Fugitive (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)

Gone Are the Days! (1963)

The Nurses (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)

The Balcony (1963)

Alcoa Premiere (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)

Seven Times Monday (1962) (TV)

Grozd na suncu (A Raisin in the Sun, 1961)

Play of the Week (1960-1961) (TV series, 2 episode)

Take a Giant Step (1959)

Virgin Island (1959)

St. Louis Blues (1958)

Edge of the City (1957)

The Great American Pastime (1956) (nepotpisana)

Go Man Go (1954)

The Tall Target (1951)

Frontiers of Faith (TV series, 1 episode)

No Way Out (1950) (uncredited)

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

The Fight Never Ends (1949)

What a Guy (1948)

The First Year (1946) (TV)

That Man of Mine (1946)