NEW YORK (AP) — Ruby Dee, an
acclaimed actor and civil rights activist whose versatile career spanned
stage, radio television and film, has died at age 91, according to her
daughter.
Nora Davis Day
told The Associated Press on Thursday that her mother died at home in
New Rochelle on Wednesday night of "natural causes."
Dee, who frequently acted alongside her husband of 56 years, Ossie Davis, was with loved ones, she added.
"We
have had her for so long and we loved her so much," Day said. "She took
her final bow last night at home surrounded by her children and
grandchildren."
Day added: "We gave her our permission to set sail. She opened her eyes, closed her eyes and away she went."
Her
long career brought her an Oscar nomination at age 83 for best
supporting actress for her role in the 2007 film "American Gangster."
She also won an Emmy and was nominated for several others. Age didn't
slow her down.
"I think you
mustn't tell your body, you mustn't tell your soul, 'I'm going to
retire,'" Dee told The Associated Press in 2001. "You may be changing
your life emphasis, but there's still things that you have in mind to do
that now seems the right time to do. I really don't believe in retiring
as long as you can breathe."
Since meeting on Broadway
in 1946, she and her late husband were frequent collaborators. Their
partnership rivaled the achievements of other celebrated acting couples.
But they were more than performers; they were also activists who fought
for civil rights, particularly for blacks.
"We
used the arts as part of our struggle," she said at an appearance in
Jackson, Mississippi, in 2006. "Ossie said he knew he had to conduct
himself differently with skill and thought."
In
1998, the pair celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and an even
longer association in show business with the publication of a dual
autobiography, "With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together."
Davis
died in February 2005. Among those who mourned at his funeral included
former President Bill Clinton, Harry Belafonte and Spike Lee.
Davis
and Dee met in 1945 when she auditioned for the Broadway play "Jeb,"
starring Davis (both were cast in it). In December 1948, on a day off
from rehearsals from another play, Davis and Dee took a bus to New
Jersey to get married. They already were so close that "it felt almost
like an appointment we finally got around to keeping," Dee wrote in "In
This Life Together."
They
shared billing in 11 stage productions and five movies during long
parallel careers. Dee's fifth film, "No Way Out" with Sidney Poitier in
1950, was her husband's first. Along with film, stage and television,
their richly honored careers extended to a radio show, "The Ossie Davis
and Ruby Dee Story Hour," that featured a mix of black themes. Davis
directed one of their joint film appearances, "Countdown at Kusini"
(1976).
Like her husband, Dee was
active in civil rights issues and efforts to promote the cause of blacks
in the entertainment industry. As young performers, they found
themselves caught up in the fight for social and racial justice in the
United States. Dee and Davis served as masters of ceremonies for the
historic 1963 March on Washington and she spoke at both the funerals for
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X.
The
couple's battle in that arena was lifelong: In 1999, the couple was
arrested while protesting the shooting death of Amadou Diallo, an
unarmed African immigrant, by New York City police.
Among
her best-known films was "A Raisin in the Sun," in 1961, the classic
play that explored racial discrimination and black frustration. On
television, she was a leading cast member on the soap operas such in the
1950s and '60s, a rare sight for a black actress in the 1950s and 60s.
As
she aged, she continued to reach new career heights. Dee was the voice
of wisdom and reason as Mother Sister in Spike Lee's 1989 film, "Do the
Right Thing," alongside her husband. She won an Emmy as supporting
actress in a miniseries or special for 1990's "Decoration Day."
She
won a National Medal of the Arts in 1995 and a Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2000. In 2004, she and Davis
received Kennedy Center Honors. Another honor came in 2007, after Davis'
death, when the recording of their memoir won a Grammy for best spoken
word album.
The role that
brought her an Oscar nomination at age 83 was as the mother of Denzel
Washington's character in Ridley Scott's crime drama "American
Gangster."
Born Ruby Ann
Wallace in Cleveland, Dee was an infant when her family moved to Harlem,
New York. She graduated from a highly competitive Hunter High School
and enrolled in college but longed for show business.
"I wanted to be an actor but the chances for success did not look promising," she wrote in their joint autobiography.
But
in 1940 she got a part in a Harlem production of a new play, "On
Strivers Row," which she later called "one giant step" to becoming a
person and a performer.
In
1965, she became the first black woman to play lead roles at the
American Shakespeare Festival. She won an Obie Award for the title role
in Athol Fugard's "Boesman and Lena" and a Drama Desk Award for her role
in "Wedding Band."
Most
recently, Dee performed her one-woman stage show, "My One Good Nerve: A
Visit With Ruby Dee," in theaters across the country. The show was a
compilation of some of the short stories, humor and poetry in her book
of the same title.
She is survived by three children: Nora, Hasna and Guy, and seven grandchildren.
___
Former Associated Press writer Richard Pyle contributed to this report.
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