Ruby Dee, an acclaimed actress and civil rights activist whose versatile career spanned
stage, radio television and film, has passed at age 91, according to her daughter. Nora
Davis Day told The Associated Press that her mother died at home in New Rochelle on
June 11 "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 maternal 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." 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 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. 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).
Both were active in civil rights issues and efforts to promote the cause of blacks in the
entertainment industry and elsewhere. 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, based on the classic play
that explored racial discrimination and black frustration (she was also in the 1959 stage version).
On television, she was 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. In 2007, Davis and Dee's book won a Grammy for best spoken
word album.
Born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Dee was an infant when her family moved to
Harlem, New York. She graduated from a highly competitive high school and enrolled
in college but longed for show business. 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. Day said funeral
services will be private but a public memorial is planned.
Source: Huff Post