Ruby Dee: Actress, Poet, Playwright, Screenwriter, Journalist, and Activist. This blog is dedicated to a phenomenal woman who has been a mover and shaker in the arts, civil rights movements, and activism. She is Ruby Dee, born Ruby Ann Wallace.
"The couple, who in addition to being married, have always seemed fused in mind and spirit as professionals. Indeed Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have been fighting and winning the artistic struggle all their lives."
"The graceful and elegant Ruby Dee, a celebrated actress of over 100 films is also a published novelist, poet, and columnist for the Amsterdam News"
"Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis are a love story for the ages. Their partnership reflects a commitment to excellence and to progress, and to always speaking truth to power. Most of all though, their relationship symbolizes a commitment to a love of themselves, of each other, and of course a love for the possibility of what this country and what this world can be!"
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis tribute at the One Hundred Black Men, Inc. in New York banquet in 2005. Directed and edited by Scott Marshall, and executively produced by Ana Carril-Grumberg.
As I watched him, I felt something like a bolt of lightning, an electrical charge...I was very shocked because I had no romantic notions about him, and I never thought about him in any romantic way...I was wondering what was happening. It was one of the most unique experiences in my life. All I can remember now was the surprise of it and I'm thinking he must have felt something too, that's how surprising it was.
"They were the first couple of the civil rights movement and seemed to be everywhere during the '60s...Two theater rats. Two leftists...Their cackles have a way of melting into one another..." Wil Haygood
He was physically big, well-read and confident...He had already told me he was a genius.
Ruby once gave Ossie an inscribed picture of herself. Dear Ossie,When I think of you, let there be silence and no writing at all. Ruby. He smiled the country smile when she handed it to him.
"They set a high standard for all of us -- as actors and individuals. What unifies them is their devotion to the struggle" New York theatrical director Billie Allen
Ruby had to remind him, hands on hips, strong words in the kitchen -- especially after the three children arrived -- that she had gifts, skills, and did not want to abandon her career while he was chasing his own. "We tried every permutation of marriage -- and it worked out" Ossie Davis
We were the 'be there' people as Ruby says regarding the Civil Rights movement. They were wherever the movement happened to be...They'd all be there, somewhere, anywhere, some fight, some protest. "They have a political resonance not all artists have" historian Taylor Branch
For a period, they were blacklisted. They survived McCarthyism, though FBI agents trailed them around; they suffered pain of being out of work, and remained determined to keep raising money for families of lynch victims. "We were good at fundraising" Ossie Davis
Ruby and Ossie's politics could be called radical by some standards, constantly challenging the status quo, as they planted their feet on many and occasion to the left of the Democratic Party. Like Robeson, one of their heroes, their astonishing artistic credentials flowed into their political activities.
Turning to Ruby, "It's been a wonderful life -- so far. No pressure now, love." Long as you didn't say was, she responds.
Ruby Ann Wallace was married to Frankie Dee Brown (blues singer) from 1941 but later divorced in 1945. In 1946, she got her first Broadway role in Jeb, a drama about a returning Black American war hero. There she met Ossie Davis (who played Jeb), and became close friends. They married on December 9, 1948.
Ruby and Ossie collaborated on several projects designed to promote Black heritage, especially Black artists. In 1974, they produced The Ruby Dee/Ossie Davis Story Hour for the National Black Network. In 1981, they produced the series With Ossie and Ruby for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
They have three children. Their son, Guy Davis, is a blues musician and former actor. They have two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad.
Ruby and Ossie were involved in and supported several other civil rights protests and causes, includingMartin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington. In 1970, the National Urban League honored them with the Frederick Douglass Award for distinguished leadership toward equal opportunity.
We would bring the whole family because...we couldn't hire babysitters and they had to have dinner. We just brought them all along but I can't say that people were always glad to see us and all our children...I grew up in a traditional way. It took me a long time to get it out of my head that my job was to stay home, look after the kids, and if money had to be made, I expected him to go out and get a job at the post office or do something - Ruby
In 1999, Ruby and Ossie were arrested for protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by White police officers of the New York City Police Department.
Together, Ruby and Ossie wrote an autobiography, Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, in which they discuss their political activism, careers, family, marriage, etc.
On March 11, 2001, Ruby and Ossie received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.
In November 2005, Ruby and Ossie were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award, presented by the National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis, TN.
Spouse:
Frankie Dee Brown (1941-1945; divorced)
Ossie Davis (1948-2005; till death)
Children:
Guy Davis (blues musician); Nora Day; Hasna Muhammad
Health:
Breast cancer survivor for more than 30 years
Awards:
Grammy (2007; Best Spoken Word Album); Emmy (won 1 in 1990, nominated 8 times); Obie; Drama Desk; Screen Actors Guild (2007, Best Supporting Actress); Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award; Recipient of the National Medal of Arts; Recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors (2004); Academy Award nomination (2007; Best Supporting Actress); Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award (2005 by the National Civil Rights Museum); Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame (2007); Honorary Degree (Princeton University).
Membership:
American Negro Theatre; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Theater:
South Pacific; Cleopatra; Anna Lucasta; Jeb; A Long Way From Home; The Smile of the World; A Raisin in the Sun; Purlie Victorius; Checkmates; The Glass Menagerie
Films:
That Man of Mine (1946; 1st); A Raisin in the Sun; The Jackson Robinson Story; Edge of the City; American Gangster; Gone Are the Days; The Incident; Decoration Day; Jungle Fever; Do the Right Thing; Black Girl; Baby Geniuses; The Unfinished Journey (narrator); Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience in the Creation of Drama; The Torture of Mothers; The New Neighbors (narrator); A Thousand Words (2012).
Documentaries:
King: A Film Record...Montgomery to Memphis (1970); Color Adjustment (1992; narrator); A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner (1998; narrator); Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003; narrator); Beach: A Black Woman Speaks (2003); Lockdown, USA (2006; narrator); A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School (2009; narrator); Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2012)
Television:
The First Year; The Fugitive; Guiding Light; Roots: The Next Generations; Ossie and Ruby!; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Golden Girls' (guest appearance); Mr. and Mrs. Loving; Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years; China Beach (guest appearance)
Autobiography: Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (2000)
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