Dorothy Dandridge

Lore & Background

In 1959, Dandridge was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award and a Laurel Award for Porgy and Bess. She was the subject of the 1999 biographical film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, with Halle Berry portraying her. In 1983, she was recognized, posthumously, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to hotel owner Jack Denison. Dandridge died in 1965 at the age of 42.

Reader's Guide

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio to entertainer Ruby (née Butler) and Cyril Dandridge. Her father was a cabinetmaker and Baptist minister. Her parents separated before her birth. Ruby created a song-and-dance act for her two young daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, under the name The Wonder Children. The act was managed by her lover, Geneva Williams. The sisters toured the Southern United States almost nonstop for five years. During the Great Depression, Ruby moved her family to Hollywood, California, where she found steady work on radio and film in small domestic-servant parts. After that relocation, in 1930, Dorothy attended McKinley Junior High School in Pasadena. The Wonder Children were renamed The Dandridge Sisters in 1934. Dandridge and her sister were teamed with dance schoolmate Etta Jones. The Dandridge Sisters continued strong for several years, and they were booked in several high-profile New York nightclubs, including the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. Dorothy Dandridge first appeared on screen at the age of 12, doubling for one of The Cabin Kids in the Bing Crosby-W. C. Fields musical comedy Mississippi (1935). That same year, when The Cabin Kids made a guest appearance in the Our Gang comedy short Teacher's Beau, Dandridge also appeared in a small role. As part of The Dandridge Sisters, she also appeared in The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1936) with Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, A Day at the Races with the Marx Brothers, and It Can't Last Forever (both 1937) with the Jackson Brothers. Dandridge's first credited film role was in Four Shall Die (1940). She had small roles in Lady from Louisiana with John Wayne and Sundown with Gene Tierney, both in 1941. Dandridge appeared as part of the specialty number 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' in the hit 1941 musical Sun Valley Serenade for 20th Century Fox. The film marked the first time she performed with the Nicholas Brothers. In addition to her screen appearances, Dandridge appeared in 10 Soundies during 1941 and 1942. She appeared as a dancer in the Mills Brothers' 'Paper Doll' but usually appeared as a singer in such mini-musicals as 'Swing for Your Supper', 'A Zoot Suit (With a Reet Pleat)', 'Cow-Cow Boogie', and 'Yes, Indeed!' In 1941 Dandridge was a featured performer in Duke Ellington’s musical review 'Jump for Joy.' She appeared occasionally in films and on the stage throughout the

Did You Know?

• Dandridge was the first African American woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
• In Carmen Jones, Dandridge sang her own songs, though mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne provided the singing voice for some operatic passages.
• Lena Horne was the first black woman featured on the cover of Life magazine (1944); Dandridge appeared on the cover in 1954.
• Dandridge performed at the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater as part of the Dandridge Sisters.