Modern Leading Men & Women Codexery

Ruby Dee

American actress and civil rights figure with a career spanning eight decades.

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Ruby Dee

via Wikipedia: Barbara Stanwyck · see source

Ruby Dee was an American actress born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio.[1][2] Ossie Davis, whom she married, died in 2005; she frequently performed alongside him until that time.[1]

Key facts and history

She joined the American Negro Theatre as an apprentice and made her Broadway debut in 1943 in the play South Pacific.[3] Growing up in Harlem, New York, Dee completed a Romance languages degree at Hunter College in 1945.[4] Her performance as Rachel Robinson in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story brought her nationwide fame.[5][6] The character of Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's Broadway play A Raisin in the Sun was first portrayed by Dee in 1959.[7]

For her part in the 2007 movie American Gangster, Dee received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination.[8][6]

What the cited sources add

It also states that she won a 1972 Drama Desk award for Wedding Band and a 1991 Emmy for Decoration Day.[6] According to a CNN article, Dee and her husband were acquainted with both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.[6] The New York Urban League presented Dee with the Frederick Douglass Award in 1970, as reported by the same source.[6] Dee and her husband were taken into custody in 1999 during a demonstration against the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, per the CNN article.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dagan, "Oscar-Nominated Actress Ruby Dee Dies at 91" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ruby Dee marks 90th birthday with new documentary about her illustrious life with late husband Ossie Davis", New York Daily News, November 13, 2012.; Watson, "Dee, Ruby Ann Wallace (1924-2014)", BlackPast.org, December 5, 2013; Davis, "With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together", William Morrow, 1998; Gates, "Arts and Letters: An A-To-Z Reference of Writers, Musicians, and Artists of the African American Experience", Running Press, 2005; Lyman, "Great African-American Women", Jonathan David Company, Inc., 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Halzack, "Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist, dies at 91", The Washington Post, October 27, 1922; "South Pacific – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB"; Warfield, "Remembering Ruby Dee in Anna Lucasta", Backstage.com, March 7, 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Duke, "Ruby Dee was a formidable force on screen, in civil rights movement", CNN, June 12, 2014; "Talented Ruby Dee Plays the Wife of Neurosurgeon in 'Peyton Place'", Schnectady Gazette, September 1968; Halzack, "Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist, dies at 91", The Washington Post, October 27, 1922; "Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc", February 19, 2026 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Duke, "Ruby Dee was a formidable force on screen, in civil rights movement", CNN, June 12, 2014; Crowther, "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Jackie Robinson Story,' With Baseball Star Playing Himself, Is Shown of Astor Theatre", The New York Times, May 17, 1950 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Duke, "Ruby Dee was a formidable force on screen, in civil rights movement", CNN, June 12, 2014. facts only, no text reused. cnn.com
  7. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Halzack, "Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist, dies at 91", The Washington Post, October 27, 1922 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Ruby Dee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Who are the oldest Oscar nominees?", Yardbarker, February 16, 2022 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Ruby Dee (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Test yourself on TriviaCafe: In what year was American actress Ruby Dee born: 1922, 1925, 1931 or 1946? · More people trivia

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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