Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She is the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in Carmen Jones (1954).[1] Dandridge performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters, and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles.
In 1959, Dandridge was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Porgy and Bess. She is the subject of the 1999 HBO biographical film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[2]
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.[2]
Early life Dandridge was born in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, to entertainer Ruby Dandridge (née Butler) and Cyril Dandridge.[3][4] Her father was a cabinetmaker and Baptist minister. Her parents separated just 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.[5] Williams was said to have had a bad temper and to have cruelly disciplined the children.[6] The sisters toured the Southern United States almost nonstop for five years (rarely attending school), while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland.[7]
During the Great Depression, work virtually dried up for the Dandridges, as it did for many Chitlin' Circuit performers. 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.[8]
The Wonder Children were renamed The Dandridge Sisters in 1934. Dandridge and her sister were teamed with dance schoolmate Etta Jones.[5]
Career
Beginnings
The Dandridge Sisters continued strong for several years, and were booked in several high-profile New York nightclubs, including the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.[9] Dandridge first appeared on screen at the age of 13 in a small part in an Our Gang comedy short, "Teacher's Beau" in 1935.[10] As a 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.[11] Although these appearances were relatively minor, Dandridge continued to earn recognition through continuing her nightclub performances nationwide.
Dandridge's first credited film role was in Four Shall Die (1940). The race film cast her as a murderer and did little for her film career. Because of her rejection of stereotypical black roles, she had limited options for film roles.[12] She had small roles in Lady from Louisiana with John Wayne and Sundown with Gene Tierney, both in 1941.
Also that year, Dandridge appeared as part of a 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.[13] Aside from her film appearances, Dandridge appeared in a succession of "soundies" – film clips that were displayed on jukeboxes, including "Paper Doll" by the Mills Brothers, "Cow, Cow Boogie", "Jig in the Jungle", and "Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter's Rent Party" also called "Swing for my Supper", among others. These films were noted not only for showcasing Dandridge as singer and dancer and her acting abilities, but also for featuring a strong emphasis on her physical attributes.
She continued to appear occasionally in films and on the stage throughout the rest of the 1940s, while also performing as a band singer in films with some good company: Count Basie in Hit Parade of 1943 and Louis Armstrong, Atlantic City (1944) and Pillow to Post (1945). In 1951, Dandridge appeared as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba in Tarzan's Peril, starring Lex Barker and Virginia Huston. When the Motion Picture Production Code tut-tutted about the film's "blunt sexuality",[citation needed] Dandridge received considerable attention for wearing what was considered "provocatively revealing" clothing.[citation needed] The continuing publicity buzz surrounding Dandridge's wardrobe got her featured on the April 1951 cover of Ebony. That same year, she had a supporting role in The Harlem Globetrotters (1951).
In May 1951, Dandridge had a spectacular opening at the Mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood after assiduous coaching and decisions on style with pianist Phil Moore.[a] This success seemed a new turn to her career, and she appeared in New York and at Café de Paris in London with equal success.[15] In a return engagement at the Mocambo in December 1952, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio agent saw Dandridge and recommended to production chief Dore Schary that she might make an appearance as a club singer, in her own name, in Remains to Be Seen, a film already in production. Her acquaintance with Dore Schary resulted in his casting Dandridge as Jane Richards in Bright Road—her first starring role, in which she expressed herself as a "wonderful, emotional actress"—which the trailer was to later promote. The film, which centered on a teacher's struggles to reach out to a troubled student, marked the first time Dandridge appeared in a film opposite Harry Belafonte. She continued her performances in nightclubs and appeared on multiple early television variety shows, including Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town16.[]
Despite Dandridge's recognition as a singer, the studio wanted an operatic voice, so Dandridge's voice was dubbed by white mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. Carmen Jones opened to favorable reviews and strong box-office returns on October 28, 1954, earning $70,000 during its first week and $50,000 during its second. Dandridge's performance as the seductive Carmen made her one of Hollywood's first African-American sex symbols and earned her positive reviews. On November 1, 1954, Dorothy Dandridge became the first black woman featured on the cover of Life. Walter Winchell described her performance as "bewitching", and Variety said that it "maintains the right hedonistic note throughout".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Dandridge
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