Ruby Dee dead at 91

[Shaka Zulu]

Ruby Dee, the legendary actress, poet, and Civil Rights activist, passed away on Wednesday in New York. She was 91.

Born Ruby Ann Wallace, the Harlem native was a dynamo on stage and screen, starring in the 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun, winning Obie and Drama Desk Awards for the play Boesman and Lena, and earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her turn as the feisty mother to Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, in the 2007 film American Gangster.

She was also a trailblazer who paved the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers to break through during the height of segregation. Dee was married to Ossie Davis, the actor, activist, and WWII veteran, from 1948 until his death in 2005. The pair appeared in 11 stage productions and five films together, including Davis’s first feature film, 1959’s No Way Out, which also starred Sidney Poitier, and later, in the Spike Lee films Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever*.

Ruby Dee dead at 91

Spike Lee has paid tribute to her on Instagram.

(*Sci-fi fans should note, she also played the role of Mother Abagail Freemantle in the TV miniseries adaptation of The Stand.)

We've lot a lot of good people, and now we've lost another-I'm floored.

Apologies if this has already been posted.

 

[Random_Spock]

Heard about her passing . So sad. May she R.I.P.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Rest in peace.

 

[the G-man]

Heard about her passing . So sad.

She lived to be 91, passed away of natural causes, had an exemplary career and, to my knowledge, a happy family life.

It that really a cause for sadness?

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Really, does a person need to justify the feelings they express when someone passes?

She was a great talent and persevered to make a difference through some turbulent times, she will be missed.

 

[gblews]

^^ Seriously? You came into a RIP thread to post that?

If for no other reason there is sadness in the fact that we won't be seeing or hearing from her again, at least not on this plane of existence.

Great actor whose career is made even greater by having to fight the additional burden of prejudice against her because of her race. May she rest in peace.

 

[the G-man]

^ Really, does a person need to justify the feelings they express when someone passes?

It was not my intent to imply they do and if it came out that way I apologize.

I was commenting, not on the poster's feelings but on what I saw as the "sadness" (or relative lack thereof) of this particular passing. My thoughts were directed at the idea a life such as her should be celebrated, and not mourned, even at the time of passing.

Compare her passing with the more recent death of Casey Kasem, for example, where he was appears to have been more uncomfortable in his final years and, worse yet, the subject of terrible and humiliating public bickering by people who supposedly loved him and turned his final months into a circus.

That, to me at least, is a sadder death.

 

[Random_Spock]

^ Really, does a person need to justify the feelings they express when someone passes?

It was not my intent to imply they do and if it came out that way I apologize.

I was commenting, not on the poster's feelings but on what I saw as the "sadness" (or relative lack thereof) of this particular passing. My thoughts were directed at the idea a life such as her should be celebrated, and not mourned, even at the time of passing.

Compare her passing with the more recent death of Casey Kasem, for example, where he was appears to have been more uncomfortable in his final years and, worse yet, the subject of terrible and humiliating public bickering by people who supposedly loved him and turned his final months into a circus.

That, to me at least, is a sadder death.

Oh I see. I get sad when any celebrity (or person for that matter) passes. It's part of being human. There's nothing wrong with grieving their loss.

Yes it wasn't a sad death per say in regards to it, but there isn't anything wrong with missing their presence.

As for Casey Kasem, I agree on that. It is a sadder death in that regard. A damn shame that his family did what they did.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^ Really, does a person need to justify the feelings they express when someone passes?

It was not my intent to imply they do and if it came out that way I apologize.

I was commenting, not on the poster's feelings but on what I saw as the "sadness" (or relative lack thereof) of this particular passing. My thoughts were directed at the idea a life such as her should be celebrated, and not mourned, even at the time of passing.

Compare her passing with the more recent death of Casey Kasem, for example, where he was appears to have been more uncomfortable in his final years and, worse yet, the subject of terrible and humiliating public bickering by people who supposedly loved him and turned his final months into a circus.

That, to me at least, is a sadder death.

I am in agreement with you about this.