Singer, Actor and Civil Rights Activist Harry Belafonte Dies at Age 96 // Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor and activist, who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s. Belafonte is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category. He earned his career breakthrough with the album Calypso (1956), which was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

Belafonte was best known for his recordings of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”, “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)”, “Jamaica Farewell”, and “Mary’s Boy Child”. He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final screen appearance in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018).

Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson a mentor, and he was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. Belafonte acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.

Belafonte won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards and in 2022 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category.
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Early years (1949–1955)
Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949, but quickly developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. He signed a contract with RCA Victor in 1953, recording regularly for the label until 1974. Belafonte also performed during the Rat Pack era in Las Vegas. Belafonte’s first widely released single, which went on to become his “signature” audience participation song in virtually all his live performances, was “Matilda”, recorded April 27, 1953.
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Rise to fame (1956–1958)
Belafonte’s breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP in the world to sell more than 1 million copies within a year. He stated that it was the first million-selling album ever in England. The album is number four on Billboard’s “Top 100 Album” list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. chart. The album introduced American audiences to calypso music (which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 19th century), and Belafonte was dubbed the “King of Calypso”, a title he wore with reservations since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles.

One of the songs included in the album is the now famous “Banana Boat Song” (listed as “Day-O” on the Calypso LP), which reached number five on the pop chart, and featured its signature lyric “Day-O”.

Many of the compositions recorded for Calypso, including “Banana Boat Song” and “Jamaica Farewell”, gave songwriting credit to Irving Burgie.
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Rise as an actor (1957–1959)
Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then-controversial film roles. In 1957’s Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte’s character and the character played by Joan Fontaine. The film also starred James Mason, Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, and John Justin. In 1959, he starred in and produced, through his company HarBel Productions, Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Preminger’s Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping; Sidney Poitier played the role instead.
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Personal life and death
Belafonte and Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They had two daughters: Adrienne and Shari Belafonte. They separated when Byrd was pregnant with Shari. Adrienne and her daughter Rachel Blue founded the Anir Foundation/Experience, focused on humanitarian work in southern Africa.

In 1953, Belafonte was financially able to move from Washington Heights, Manhattan “into a white neighborhood in Elmhurst, Queens.”

Belafonte had an affair with actress Joan Collins during the filming of Island in the Sun.

On March 8, 1957, Belafonte married his second wife Julie Robinson, a former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company who was of Jewish descent.

After 47 years of marriage, Belafonte and Robinson divorced in 2004. In April 2008, he married photographer Pamela Frank.

Belafonte had five grandchildren: Rachel and Brian through his children with Marguerite Byrd, and Maria, Sarafina and Amadeus through his children with Robinson. In October 1998, Belafonte contributed a letter to Liv Ullmann’s book Letter to My Grandchild.

Belafonte died from congestive heart failure at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City on April 25, 2023 at the age of 96.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte

Photo: Harry Belafonte – Activist
https://www.facebook.com/harrybelafonte/

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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS

If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com

April 2023

26: Billy “The Kid” Emerson, 97, American singer-songwriter (“Red Hot”).

25: Harry Belafonte, 96, American Hall of Fame musician (“The Banana Boat Song”, “Jump in the Line”), actor (Odds Against Tomorrow), and civil rights activist, heart failure; Manfred Weiss, 88, German composer.

24: Lilian Day Jackson, 63, American singer (Spargo).

23: Keith Gattis, 52, American country music singer, songwriter (“El Cerrito Place”, “When I See This Bar”), and producer, tractor accident; Isaac Wiley Jr., 69, American drummer (Dazz Band).

22: Ron Cahute, 68, Canadian singer-songwriter and accordionist; Aleksei Muravlyov, 98, Russian composer (The White Poodle, Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, Vasili and Vasilisa).

21: Sergio Rendine, 68, Italian composer, cultural manager and theatre director (Teatro Marrucino); Mark Stewart, 62, English musician (The Pop Group) and songwriter (“She Is Beyond Good and Evil”, “This Is Stranger Than Love”).

20: Pamela Chopra, 75, Indian playback singer (Kabhi Kabhie, Kaala Patthar, Chandni), pneumonia.

19: Yehonatan Geffen, 76, Israeli author, poet and songwriter; Ron “Patch” Hamilton, 72, American Christian singer-songwriter, preacher, and voice actor; Shahidul Haque Khan, 74, Bangladeshi film director and lyricist, cancer; Moonbin, 25, South Korean singer (Astro), actor (Boys Over Flowers, At Eighteen) and dancer; Martin Petzold, 67, German classical tenor (Thomanerchor); Otis Redding III, 59, American singer and guitarist (The Reddings), cancer; Carlo Saba, 54, Indonesian singer (Kahitna), heart disease; Federico Salvatore, 63, Italian singer-songwriter and comedian, complications from a cerebral haemorrhage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2023

Wikipedia, Harry Belafonte, Paul Robeson, Civil Rights Movement, George W. Bush, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Billy Emerson, Lilian Day Jackson, Keith Gattis, Isaac Wiley Jr., Ron Hamilton, Otis Redding III,