Singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has died.
Belafonte’s publicist Ken Sunshine confirmed that he had passed of congestive heart failure at his New York home, with his wife Pamela by his side.
He was 96.
Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York and was the son of Jamaican immigrants. He grew up between New York and Jamaica and served in the U.S. Navy, even doing a brief stint as a caretaker’s assistant. But it was his decision to study drama at Erwin Piscator’s famed Dramatic Workshop alongside other Hollywood greats, such as Marlon Brando, Bea, Arthur, Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis, which would change the trajectory of his career.
Dubbed the “King of Calypso, the former nightclub singer would go on to make history as the first artist in recording history with “Calypso” selling more than one million copies-mainly down to the success of “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” the biggest single of his career.
Belafonte was the first African-American musician to win an Emmy. Throughout his career, Belafonte starred in over 30 films, including an appearance in the 2019 Academy Award-winning film Blackkklansman. His 1959 CBS special Tonight with Belafonte won a 1960 Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series-the first Jamaican to do so, as well as a Tony award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s Broadway show, “Almanac.”
Still, his influence reached far beyond the entertainment world.
Belafonte was a key supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. He helped to fund the Freedom Riders, who traveled on buses in the Southern states to tackle racial discrimination head-on. Belafonte would organize sit-ins, freedom rides and marches and personally delivered $70,000 to protestors in Mississippi during their Freedom Summer in 1964, with the support of fellow actor Sidney Poitier.
“Civil rights is a not a movement; it’s a way of life,” Belafonte said during the 50th anniversary of integration at the University of Mississippi in 2012. “I’m saddened when I hear people say that the movement is over, for nothing could be further from the truth.”
He is survived by his third wife, Pamela; his daughters Shari, Adrienne and Gina; son David; stepchildren Sarah and Lindsey; and eight grandchildren.
