“Paradise is to be the ultimate instrument, fulfilling God’s desperate intent that we love each other.” – Ruby Dee
The answer to the age-old question of what makes a legend is found in the insightful and prolific body of work belonging to acclaimed thespian and civil rights activist Ruby Dee, who passed away peacefully Wednesday at the age of 91. Blessed with a long career on the stage, and in television and film, oftentimes collaborating with late husband Ossie Davis, Dee has won a Grammy, an Emmy, an Obie, and a Drama Desk Award. In 1995, Dee was awarded the National Medal of the Arts, and in 2004, she received the Kennedy Center Honors. Three years later, Dee was nominated for an Oscar at age 83 for Best Supporting Actress in the film American Gangster.
Raised in Harlem, the icon’s first role was in the 1940 play On Striver’s Row and later became most famous for her breakout performance as Ruth Younger in the big screen production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in 1961. She was a fixture in several Spike Lee Joints, along with Davis, including Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever. Until recently, Dee traveled across the country performing her one-woman stage play My One Good Nerve: A Visit with Ruby Dee, which details her astounding life.
Dee’s activism began at the age of 11 when she spoke at a rally for her music teacher who had committed suicide after funding cuts eliminated her job. Dee was labeled a communist for protesting, in 1953, the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the New York couple convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. She and Davis would later emcee Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963. In 1965, the couple marched in Selma, AL. And their commitment to civil rights would continue decades later. They were arrested in 1999 for protesting the fatal shooting of immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York police officers.
Last week, at the 2014 Tony Awards, actress Audra MacDonald paid tribute to Dee, crediting her, along with Maya Angelou and Diahann Carroll, for making her career possible. Other celebrities have reacted on social media to the death of the screen legend:
Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNiel, and Ruby Dee in A Raisin in the Sun
Ruby Dee, a legendary actress, artist,, and activist has passed. I knew her and admired her greatly. A jewel of a women.
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) June 12, 2014
Rest in peace to Ruby Dee, an inspiring African-American pioneer of the stage and screen. May her legacy live forever. — Mike Jordan. (@MichaelBJordan) June 12, 2014
— Reagan Gomez (@ReaganGomez) June 12, 2014
#RIP, Ruby Dee. Thank you for paving the way with your brilliance, beauty, fight and grace.
— Anika Noni Rose (@AnikaNoniRose) June 12, 2014
We salute legendary & incomparable #RubyDee on a life well lived sharing her gifts in the struggle and on the screen… pic.twitter.com/kqJbkpBAay
— White House Af-Am Ed (@AfAmEducation) June 12, 2014