Legendary singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte died on April 25 in his dwelling in Manhattan, his spokesperson confirmed to the New York Instances. He was 96.
Belafonte was born in Harlem in 1927. He broke via as a singer within the Fifties, bringing Calypso-style music to a large viewers. He additionally started performing in movies throughout that decade, showing with Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, and different golden-age Hollywood stars.
Most significantly, Belafonte was a vocal supporter of the civil rights motion all through the Fifties and ’60s, and was a good friend to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Belafonte used his Hollywood cash to financially assist features of the motion, in addition to his Hollywood contacts to lift much more cash when it was wanted. He would offer bail cash to get activists out of jail, usually hosted King in his Manhattan residence, and took half within the March on Washington in 1963. He additionally helped assist King’s household after the latter’s assassination.
Belafonte continued to face for progressive values all through his life. He was energetic within the anti-apartheid motion, a vocal critique of the Iraq Struggle, and was the Grand Marshal of the New York Metropolis Pleasure Parade in 2013. In 2018, Belafonte appeared in Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” as a civil rights chief.
Belafonte’s spokesperson informed the Instances that the star died of congestive coronary heart failure.
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