Ossie Davis Found Dead

[TheEpitome1920]

NEW YORK - Ossie Davis, an actor distinguished for roles dealing with racial injustice on stage, screen and in real life — and perhaps best known as the husband and partner of actress Ruby Dee — has died at the age of 87.

Davis was found dead on Friday in his hotel room in Miami, where he was making a film called "Retirement," according to Arminda Thomas, who works in his office in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Davis, who wrote, acted, directed and produced for the theater and Hollywood, was a central figure among black performers of the last five decades. He and Dee celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1998 with the publication of a dual autobiography, "In This Life Together."

Their partnership called to mind other performing couples, such as the Lunts, or Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Davis and Dee first appeared together in the plays "Jeb," in 1946, and "Anna Lucasta," in 1946-47. Davis' first film, "No Way Out" in 1950, was Dee's fifth. They shared billing in 11 stage productions and five movies during long parallel careers.

Both had key roles in the television series "Roots: The Next Generation" (1978), "Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum" (1986) and "The Stand" (1994). Davis appeared in three Spike Lee films, including "School Daze," "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever." Dee also appeared in the latter two; among her best-known films was "A Raisin in the Sun," in 1961.

In 2004, he and Dee were among the artists selected to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.

When not on stage or on camera, Davis and Dee were deeply involved in civil rights issues and efforts to promote the cause of blacks in the entertainment industry. They nearly ran afoul of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the early 1950s, but were never openly accused of any wrongdoing.

Davis, the oldest of five children of a self-taught railroad builder and herb doctor in tiny Cogdell, Ga., grew up in nearby Waycross and Valdosta. He left home in 1935, hitchhiking to Washington to enter Howard University, where he studied drama, intending to be a playwright.

His career as an actor began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem, then the center of black culture in America. There, the young Davis met or mingled with some of the most influential figures of the time, including the preacher Father Divine, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright (news).

He also had what he described in the book as a "flirtation with the Young Communist League," which he said essentially ended with the onset of World War II. Davis spent nearly four years in service, mainly as a surgical technician in an Army hospital in Liberia (news - web sites), serving both wounded troops and local inhabitants.

Back in New York in 1946, Davis debuted on Broadway in "Jeb," a play about a returning soldier. His co-star was Ruby Dee, whose budding stage career had paralleled his own. They had even appeared in different productions of the same play, "On Strivers Row," in 1940.

It marked the beginning of a collaboration on and off the stage.

In December 1948, on a day off from rehearsals from another play, "The Smile of the World," 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 writes in "In This Life Together."

As black performers, they found themselves caught up in the social unrest fomented by the then-new Cold War and the growing debate over social and racial justice in the United States.

"We young ones in the theater, trying to fathom even as we followed, were pulled this way and that by the swirling currents of these new dimensions of the Struggle," Davis wrote in the joint autobiography. "Black revolutionaries fighting, just like the Russians, to liberate the workers and save the world, against the black bourgeoisie fighting, at the behest of rich white folks, to defeat the Communist menace and save the world."

Davis says he "had no trouble identifying which side I was on." He lined up with black socialist reformer DuBois and singer Paul Robeson, remaining fiercely loyal to the singer even after Robeson was denounced by other black political, sports and show business figures for his openly communist and pro-Soviet sympathies.

While Hollywood and, to a lesser extent, the New York theater world became engulfed in McCarthyism and red-baiting controversies, Davis and Dee _despite their leftist activism in causes ranging from labor rallies to saving the accused atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — emerged from the anti-communist fervor unscathed and, in Davis' view, justifiably so.



"We've never been, to our knowledge, guilty of anything — other than being black — that might upset anybody," he wrote.

They were friends with baseball star Jackie Robinson and his wife, Rachel — Dee played her, opposite Robinson himself, in the 1950 movie, "The Jackie Robinson Story" — and with Malcolm X.

In the book, Davis told how a prior commitment caused them to miss the Harlem rally where Malcolm was assassinated. But Davis delivered the eulogy at Malcolm's funeral, and reprised it in a voice-over for the 1992 Spike Lee film, "Malcolm X."

Along with film, stage and television, their careers extended to a radio show, "The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee Story Hour," that ran on 65 stations for four years in the mid-1970s, featuring a mix of black themes.

Both wrote plays and screenplays, and Davis directed several films, most notably "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970) and "Countdown at Kusini" (1976), in which he also appeared with Dee.

Other films in which Davis appeared include "The Cardinal" (1963), "The Hill" (1965), "Grumpy Old Men" (1993), "The Client" (1994) and "I'm Not Rappaport" (1996), a reprise of his stage role 10 years earlier.

On television, he appeared in "The Emperor Jones" (1955), "Freedom Road" (1979), "Miss Evers' Boys" (1997) and "Twelve Angry Men" (1997). He was a cast member on "The Defenders" from 1963-65, and "Evening Shade" from 1990-94, among other shows.

Both Davis and Dee made numerous guest appearances on television shows.

[MysticCat]

How very sad. He was a great actor and a great human being, and he will be missed.

[tinydancer]

NO NO NO! How terrible!! I just saw him on the Kennedy Center Awards and was so impressed with all his work throughout the years. He was a joy to watch.

[Senusret I]

Wow, this is so sad.

[Jill1228]

I just woke up and read this
Damn, all the good ones are going

[sigmagrrl]

It really is sad...

He always reminded me of my Grandpa....

So sad...Rest In Peace, Mr. Davis...

[mmcat]

such a talent...
so sad.
thoughts and prayers with his family.

[UKDaisy]

This is sooo sad. I remember watching Bubba Ho-tep this summer and being amazed that Ossie Davis was in it.

He seemed like an excellent guy.

I'm going to have to watch Bubba Ho-tep again in his spirit.

[PhiPsiRuss]

As sad as his death is, I just realized something. He, and his wife, were in a "Hollywood marriage" that worked. That says a lot about about their character. It also shows that even under difficult conditions, good people can make good things happen.

[Senusret I]

Tears flow in Harlem
BY KERRY BURKE, LESLIE CASIMIR and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, February 12th, 2005

From Hollywood to Harmlem, thousands of mourners gathered yesterday for Ossie Davis' last curtain call - a stately funeral procession through Manhattan and a star-studded church service.

The famous stood alongside ordinary fans at Riverside Church to pay tribute to the late actor and activist and to give comfort to his widow and performing partner, Ruby Dee.

They remembered the power he brought to the stage and the picket line, his passion for the arts and his lifelong fight for civil rights and economic equality.

"All people embraced him as he embraced all people," singer and actor Harry Belafonte said in his eulogy. "But he held a special place in the heart and soul of black folk and the poor."

Former President Bill Clinton said he asked to sit in the back of the church because "I would proudly ride on the back of Ossie's bus any day."

"I was never in Ossie Davis' presence that I didn't want to stand up a little straighter, speak a little better, be a little more generous," Clinton said. "Thank you God, for letting us know him."

Davis, 87, died Feb. 4 in Miami Beach, where he was shooting a movie, leaving a legacy that includes 80 films, Broadway shows and a history of activism.

Though he was born in Georgia and spent the last years of his life in New Rochelle, Westchester County, Davis began his career in Harlem, where his final farewell was held.

It began at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on W. 138th St., where at 10 a.m. a mahogany coffin adorned with roses was carried into a black Cadillac hearse.

Led by a troupe of African drummers and trailed by a cavalcade of limos and a crowd of 100 on foot, the hearse was driven west to Riverside Church.

A line of people hoping to get into the service snaked around the block. Some held signs, others tapped on drums as they shared memories of Davis.

Chad Tucker, 19, an actor from Rosedale, Queens, had been in line since 4 a.m. He talked about how Davis and Dee visited him backstage after his performance in a play, "Blue," two years ago.

"It was the equivalent of being in a gold mine. I was so touched," he said. "When I win my Academy Award, he is one of the people I will thank."

The funeral was a spirited event. Wynton Marsalis played the jazz trumpet, Maya Angelou read a poem and actor Avery Brooks read from Davis' play, "Purlie Victorious."

Dee, who was married to Davis for more than half a century, wiped away tears as close friends paid tribute.

The Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr., pastor of Riverside, called Davis "our guru, our philosopher king." Actor Alan Alda said Davis was "my hero."

"When I was 24, I stood in the wings every night watching Ossie in 'Purlie Victorious.' His power and his spontaneity were so vivid that it made the hair rise on your neck," he said.

Burt Reynolds, who co-starred with Davis in the TV show "Evening Shade," noted they were born in the same town.

"As I grew to love him, he took the bad part of the South out of me," Reynolds said.

Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of Malcolm X, broke down as she recalled the eulogy Davis gave her father in 1965.

"Forty years ago, Uncle Ossie said ... 'Here at this final hour in this quiet place, Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest hopes.'"

She paused and then added: "Ditto."

But there was plenty of laughter, too.

Earl Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, threw out some of Davis' trademark one-liners, which he called Ossie-isms.

If someone told Davis he was looking good, he would say, "They pay me to look good."

If they asked where his next job would take him, he would answer, "I don't know, but they will accept me when I arrive and they will pay me when I leave."

And when he was asked how he was doing, Davis would inevitably respond, "Better than I deserve, and I deserve the best."

"And he did deserve the best," Graves said. "Because the best is what he gave of himself."

Some of the most poignant - and funniest - tributes came from Davis' seven grandchildren.

"Bear with me," his grandson Brian said. "because he always said if we did his funeral wrong he was going to get up and do it himself."

Another grandson, Muta Ali, said he had been fighting back tears since he heard of Davis' death.

"You blessed my life for 25 years, and this Earth for 87," he said. "I guess you have to let the angels have their turn, too."

[FeeFee]

Channel New York 1 aired the funeral in it's entirety, which lasted about 4 hours.

Very appropriate home-going service for a great legend.

He will be missed.