RIP: Henry Belafonte

Joan Fontaine

Fox, Harry Belafonte, award-winning actor and singer, dead at 96

Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96.

Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Paula M. Witt, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.

Besides singing, Belafonte was also known for his acting and as a supporter of the civil rights movement.
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Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s.

He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s "Almanac," and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special "Tonight with Harry Belafonte."

In 1954, he also co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical "Carmen Jones," a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. His 1957 film, "Island in the Sun," was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Paige Spiranac up on time and under budget at The Other McCain.

Of course, I think I heard this first.