Death of Harry Belafonte: the singer and actor was 96 years old

Singer, actor, producer and activist Harry Belafonte, who sparked a calypso craze in the United States with his music and opened up new avenues for African-American artists, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Manhattan. He was 96 years old.

An award-winning Broadway performer and versatile recording and concert star of the 1950s, handsome Belafonte became one of the first black men in Hollywood. He then embarked on the production of theatrical films and television films.

As her career spanned into the new millennium, her commitment to social causes never took precedence over her professional work.

A close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Belafonte was an important voice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and he later embarked on charitable activities on behalf of underdeveloped African nations. He was an outspoken opponent of South Africa’s policy of apartheid.

Among the most honored artists of his era, Belafonte won two Grammy Awards (and the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000), a Tony and an Emmy. He also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Motion Picture Academy at the Governors Awards in 2014.

Harold George Belafonte Jr. was born in New York but was sent to live with his grandmother in Jamaica at age 5, returning to high school in New York. But Jamaica’s native calypso and mento would provide crucial material for his early musical repertoire.

After serving in the war, Belafonte turned to the New York theater scene. One of the first mentors was the famous black actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. He studied acting with Erwin Piscator and attended Broadway shows – on a single ticket he handed over at intermission – with another struggling young actor, Sidney Poitier. Like Poitier, he performed at the American Negro Theater in Harlem.

Belafonte first made his mark, however, as a nightclub singer. Initially working in a pop and jazz vein, Belafonte began his singing career at New York’s Royal Roost and made his recording debut in 1949 on Roost Records. He quickly developed a growing interest in American folk music.

A nationwide tour and dates at New York’s Village Vanguard and Blue Angel followed. A scout for MGM spotted him in the latter location and, after a screen test, Belafonte landed a role opposite Dorothy Dandridge in “Bright Road” (1953).

That same year, Belafonte made his Rialto debut in the revue “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac”, for which he received the Tony for Best Performance by a Star Actor in a Musical.

Ironically, while Belafonte played the lead role in Otto Preminger’s 1954 musical “Carmen Jones” – based on Oscar Hammerstein II’s Broadway adaptation of Bizet’s opera “Carmen” – his voice has was dubbed by opera singer LeVern Hutcherson. Belafonte would soon explode into his own right as a pop singer.

He made his RCA Records debut in 1954 with “Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites”; he had performed the titular folk song with its guitarist Millard Thomas on his Tony-winning Broadway tour. The 1956 “Belafonte” LP, with similar folk repertoire, spent six weeks at No. 1.

These collections were just a warm-up for “Calypso”. The 1956 album sparked a national calypso craze, spent a staggering 31 weeks at No. 1, and remains one of the four longest-running charts in history. It spawned Belafonte’s signature hit, “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)”, which topped the singles chart for five weeks. A parody of this ubiquitous Stan Freberg number reached No. 25 in 1957. Director Tim Burton used the melody to brilliant effect in his 1988 comedy “Beetlejuice.”

Belafonte would record five more top-five albums – including two live sets recorded at Carnegie Hall – through 1961. His 1960 collection “Swing Dat Hammer” received a Grammy as best ethnic or traditional folk album; he won the same award for “An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba” in 1965, a collaboration with South African folk artist Miriam Makeba.

He also provided a first job for a future folk icon: his 1962 album “Midnight Special” featured harmonica work by Bob Dylan.

A frequent guest on television variety shows, Belafonte became the first black performer to win an Emmy with his 1959 special “Tonight With Belafonte.”

Belafonte took his first steps into film production with two feature films he starred in: the doomsday drama “The World, Flesh and the Devil” (1959) and the heist film “Odds Against Tomorrow” (1960). However, unhappy with the roles offered to him, he would remain absent from the big screen for the rest of the 1960s and busy himself with recordings and international tours as his involvement in the civil rights movement deepened.

Closely associated with cleric-activist King, Belafonte provided financial support to the civil rights leader and his family. He also funded the Freedom Riders and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was a key figure in organizing the historic August 1963 March on Washington.

The racial tumult of the 1960s hit close to home: In 1968 he became the center of a furor when he appeared as a guest star on an NBC special hosted by British pop singer Petula Clark. During a performance of an anti-war ballad, Clark grabbed Belafonte’s arm. Doyle Lott, vice president of sponsor Chrysler-Plymouth, was present during the taping and demanded the number be removed, saying the “interracial touching” could offend Southern viewers. But Clark, who owned the show, put his foot down and the show aired as it was taped, while executive Lott was fired by the automaker.

Belafonte returned to feature film in 1970 in the whimsical “The Angel Levine” alongside Zero Mostel. He co-starred with an old friend Poitier in the comedies “Buck and the Preacher” (1972) and “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974), both directed by Poitier.

His acting appearances would be sporadic for the rest of his career. He notably appeared alongside John Travolta in “White Man’s Burden” (1995), an alternate-universe fantasy drama about racism; Robert Altman’s ensemble period drama “Kansas City” (1996); and “Bobby” (2006), Emilio Estevez’s account of the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968.

In 1985, Belafonte’s activism and musicality came together when he helped organize the recording session for “We Are the World”, the all-star single dedicated to the fight against famine in Africa. His appearance on this massive hit led to “Paradise in Gazankulu” (1988), his first studio recording in over 10 years.

His latter-day production work included the 1984 hip-hop drama “Beat Street” and the 2000 miniseries “Parting the Waters,” based on historian Taylor Branch’s biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2002, “The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music”, a huge collection of African and African-American music recorded and compiled by Belafonte over a decade and originally slated for release by RCA in the 1970s , was eventually released as a five-CD set on Universal’s Buddha imprint. He earned three Grammy nominations.

Over the next few years, Belafonte remained as outspoken as ever, and his views sometimes sparked controversy. He was an enemy of South African apartheid, opposed the US embargo on Cuba and denounced George W. Bush’s military incursion into Iraq.

Belafonte was the son of a Jamaican housekeeper and a Martinican chef, spending his early and late childhood in Harlem but the crucial middle period in Jamaica. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944; during his service he encountered the writing of NAACP co-founder and key influence WEB DuBois.

He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1989 and the National Medal of the Arts in 1994.

Belafonte released her memoir “My Song”, written with Michael Shnayerson, in 2011. Susanne Rostock’s biographical documentary “Sing Your Song” was released in early 2012.

He is survived by his third wife Pamela; daughters Shari, Adrienne and Gina; son David; stepchildren Sarah and Lindsey; and eight grandchildren.