Dorothy Dandridge:
Cinamatic Legend, Dorothy Dandridge, Was
Born On November 9, 1922, In Cleveland, Ohio.
Dandridge Entered Showbusiness During The
1930's With Her Sister, As Part Of A Song-And
Dance Team Billed As "The Wonder Children."
After Leaving High School, Dandridge, Her
Sister, Vivian And Etta James Formed A Trio
And Called The Dandridge Sisters. They
Performed At Venues Such The Apollo Theater
And The Cotton Club In Harlem.
As A Teenager She Made Her On-Screen Debut In A 1935 Our Gang Short. In 1937 She Appeared In The Marx Brothers Feature, A Day At The
Races.
Throughout The 1940's Dandridge Continued To
Play Bit Parts On Screen And Sing In Night
Clubs, To Support Herself.
In 1954, She Got What Would Become Her
Signature Role, In Carmen Jones, An All-Black
Version Of The Opera, Carmen. The Film
Costarred Harry Belafonte And Pearl Bailey.
Dandridge Became The First African American
To Earn An Oscar Nomination As Best Actress
For Carmen Jones. She Was The Third African
American To Earn An Academy Award
Nomination In Any Category, Overall (Hattie
McDaniel And Ethel Waters Received
Nominations Previously).
Among Her Other Accomplishments: Dandridge Was The First Black Woman To Appear At TheLas Vegas Frontier And Waldolf-Astoria And The First Black Woman To Appear On The Cover Of Life Magazine.
Dorothy Dandridge's Next Great Movie Role After
Carmen Jones, Was Playing Opposite Sidney
Poitier, In Porgy Bess (1959). She Spent The
Next Several Years Acting In Poorly Directed
Films, While Fighting Against Hollywood's Racial
Stereotyping.
On September 8, 1965, Dandridge Was Found
Dead In Her Hollywood Home, An Apparent
Suicide From A Drug Overdose.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
