Ruby Dee has navigated the challenging dynamics of the creative arts industry with such grace and poise and will always be remembered for her fine works. She was an actress, playwright, poet and screenwriter who graced the big screens in the 1950s with her flawless talent and remained relevant in death. There is much to learn from the life of the legendary actress and author who passed away in 2014. Ruby Dee patiently stayed true to her passion despite the hurdles and became an inspiration for big wigs in the entertainment industry as well as aspiring artists. Here are lesser-known facts about the legend.
Ruby Dee’s biography
Ruby was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland Ohio on October 22, 1922 to her parents – Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace. When she was young, her family moved to Harlem, New York, where her talent and passion for art began to manifest. Ruby Dee was already writing poetry as a teenager and submitted her first poems to a newspaper – the New York Amsterdam News. She attended Hunter High School, where she also decided to become an actress. After Hunter High School, Dee went to Hunter College, where she earned a degree in Romance Studies. After college, she enrolled at the American Negro Theater, where she trained alongside other actors such as Sidney Poitier, Hilda Simms, and others.
She soon appeared on Broadway with Anna Lucasta in 1946, her starring role. She also landed her first Broadway role in Jeb . It was there that she met her husband, Ossie Davis. Ruby also had her first major onscreen role in This Man of Mine that same year. The actress landed film roles immediately after her big screen breakthrough. She is remembered for her role in the film The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), which earned her multiple awards. In 1959, Ruby had a role in the film A Raisin in the Sun reprising her Broadway role as the wife of Sidney Portia and a mother in a disadvantaged African American family.
More films followed in the 60’s and Ruby Dee gradually gained importance. She had a role in the film The Incident , after which she appeared in eight episodes on American soap Payton Place (1969) . She also appeared in other films like; The Policewoman , The Golden Girls , Roots: The Next Generations . In 1989 she performed in Berlin Do the right thing directed by Spike Lee. She also played a character in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991).
wealth and achievements
She also amassed many riches through outstanding works that speak volumes. Ruby Dee’s net worth has been estimated at $5 million. Even in death, the actress and writer’s works have continued to garner wealth for her family. Ruby Dee had a burgeoning career in acting and other arts, earning multiple awards throughout her career.
The actress had eight Emmy nominations for her role in Decoration Day (1990). She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995 with her husband Ossie Davis. The couple also won the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. She was also a regular at the Academy and Screen Guild Awards. Ruby received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for her role in American Gangster (2007). Before her death, she was considered the second-oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actress.
husband, children
Ruby married her husband Ossie Davis in 1948. Before Davis, the actress was married to Frankie Dee Brown. Ruby and Frankie married in 1941, after which she adopted his middle name (Dee) as her own stage name. However, the couple divorced four years later in 1945. She had met actor Ossie Davis on the set of the Broadway play Jeb . The two, who soon started out as friends, discovered a connection between them and the rest was history. Ruby and Davis had three children together – Guy Davis, her son who is an R&B musician, and two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad.
Ruby and Ossie were dedicated activists who fought relentlessly for human rights and black independence with the best weapon they had – on screen. The couple launched several projects aimed at projecting a black image in the industry. The couple, who were both active members of the civil rights movement and friends of Martin Luther King Jr., were arrested in 1999 while protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. The couple, who staunchly opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, added their signatures to the “Not In Our Name” proclamation published in The Nation magazine.
Dee lost her husband in 2005. It was quite an agonizing time for the actress, whose husband was in her 50s. The actress, who was in the middle of filming, learned of his death when she was miles away.
Despite being widowed and in pain, the ever-persistent actress made progress and continued her work after her husband’s death. One of her notable performances after her husband’s death was in American Gangster where she played the mother of Denzel Washington, a notorious criminal.
Death – cause of their death
Ruby Dee was a widow for 9 years before giving The famous actress died of natural causes at the age of 91 at her home in New Rochelle, New York. A memorial was held in the actress’ honor on September 20, 2014 at the Riverside Church in Upper Manhattan.
Dee was scheduled to make a film about King Dog during the time of her death. The film, which was still in production at the time, was reportedly not released.
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