Dorothy Dandridge

Actress/vocalist Dorothy Dandridge was Hollywood’s first African-American superstar, becoming the very first dark performer ever nominated for the Best Celebrity Oscar. Blessed November 9, 1923 in Cleveland, she was the little girl of celebrity Ruby Dandridge, with sister Vivian teamed within the song-and-dance duo the sweetness Children. The family members relocated to LA during the middle-’30s, and in 1937 Dandridge briefly produced her film debut within the Marx Brothers traditional A Trip to the Races. Concurrently she continuing her singing profession, with Vivian performed because the Dandridge Sisters, writing stages with famous brands Jimmie Lunceford and Cab Calloway in addition to documenting with Louis Armstrong. Through the early ’40s Dorothy made an appearance in some musical film pants, so when the decade advanced she became a feeling over the nightclub circuit. Dandridge’s mainstream discovery was her name function in Otto Preminger’s 1954 display screen musical Carmen Jones, a functionality which gained her an Academy Prize nomination and produced her a superstar; nevertheless, she didn’t reappear onscreen until 1957’s Isle in sunlight, and despite earning a Golden World for her function in 1959’s Porgy and Bess she was provided virtually no potential film roles, time for nightclubs by the first ’60s. Suffering from many years of personal hardships in addition to professional hurdles, Dandridge was discovered dead of the overdose of anti-depressants on Sept 8, 1965. Three years later her profession enjoyed some sort of renaissance with an acclaimed 1997 biography by film historian Donald Bogle furthermore to Presenting Dorothy Dandridge, a 1999 HBO telefilm starring Halle Berry. Steady Operator, a long-unreleased documenting time from 1958 offering the Oscar Peterson trio, was finally released in 1999 aswell.