Harry Belafonte

for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes. In recent years he has been a vocal critic of the policies of the Bush Administration.

Biography

Youth and early career

Harold George Belafonete, Jr. (as spelled at birth) [ [http://www.oracamminiamoeretti.com/oracamminiamoeretti/node/365 Non c'entra niente col video | OraCamminiamoEretti ] ] was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Melvine (née Love), a domestic worker, and Harold George Belafonete, Sr., a chef in the British Navy and native of the island Martinique. [cite book | last = Hardy | first = Phil | coauthors = Dave Laing | title = The Faber Companion to Twentieth Century Music | publisher = Faber | year = 1990 | pages = pp. 54 | isbn = 0571168485 ] [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/62/Harry-Belafonte.html Harry Belafonte Biography (1927-) ] ] The African American Registry http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2442/Harry_Belafonte_an_entertainer_of_truth] ["Harry Belafonte," "Calypso: A World Music" University of Southern Florida http://www.calypsoworld.org/noflash/artists-04.htm] From 1935 to 1939, he lived with his grandmother in the village of Aboukir in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City he attended George Washington High School [Arenson, Karen W. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07EFDA103CF931A35755C0A9669C8B63 "Commencements; Belafonte Lauds Diversity Of Baruch College Class"] , "The New York Times", June 2, 2000. Accessed April 16, 2008. "(He said that he had not gotten past the first year at George Washington High School, and that the only college degrees he had were honorary ones.)"] after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac".

Music career

in globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. He gave his last concert in 2003, and in a 2007 interview stated that he has since retired from performing. [ [http://www.pr-inside.com/de/besser-als-es-jetzt-ist-kann-r53408.htm «Besser als es jetzt ist, kann es nicht werden» ] ]

Film career

Harry Belafonte has starred in several films. His first major film role was in "Bright Road" (1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical "Carmen Jones" (1954). Ironically Belafonte's lyrics in the film were dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte's own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role. Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then controversial film roles. In 1957's "Island in the Sun" there are hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and Joan Fontaine. In 1959 he starred in and produced Robert Wise's "Odds Against Tomorrow", in which he plays a bank robber, uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in "The World, the Flesh and the Devil".Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Otto Preminger's "Porgy and Bess", but refused the role, because he objected to the racial stereotyping of African Americans in the story. Feeling dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, he abandoned film in favour of his music career during the 1960s. In the early 1970s Belafonte briefly resurfaced in a number of films including two films in which he starred alongside Sidney Poitier: "Buck and the Preacher" (1972) and "Uptown Saturday Night" (1974). In 1984, Belafonte produced and scored the musical film "Beat Street", dealing with the rise of hip-hop culture. Belafonte would not star in a major film again until the mid-1990s, when he appeared alongside John Travolta in the race-reverse drama "White Man's Burden" (1995) and in Robert Altman's jazz age drama "Kansas City" (1996). He also starred as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the TV drama "Swing Vote" (1999). In late 2006, Belafonte appeared in the role of Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel played by Anthony Hopkins, in "Bobby", Emilio Estevez's ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Political and humanitarian activism

Belafonte's political beliefs are greatly inspired by the man that he still views to this day as his mentor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. [ [http://www.cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu/robeson/belafonte.html Bellefonte speech about Paul Robeson ] ] Paul Robeson was in his time a controversial figure for strongly supporting the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. He strongly opposed racial prejudice in the United States, and western colonialism in Africa.Like Robeson and other African-American entertainers, Belafonte's success in the arts did not protect him from racial discrimination, particularly in the South of the United States. As a result, he refused to perform in the South of the U.S. from 1954 until 1961. In 1960, President John F. Kennedy named Belafonte as cultural advisor to the Peace Corps. Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and one of Martin Luther King's confidants.  He provided for King's family, since King made only $8,000 a year as a preacher. Like many civil rights activists, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. He bailed King out of the Birmingham City Jail and raised thousands of dollars to release other imprisoned civil rights protesters. He financed the Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963..In December 2007, Belafonte gave the keynote address and was awarded the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award at the ACLU of Northern California's annual Bill of Rights Day Celebration. On 19th October 2007, Harry represented UNICEF on Norwegian television to support the annual telethon ( [http://www.tvaksjonen.no TV Aksjonen] ) in support of that charity and helped raise a world record of $10 per inhabitant of Norway.

Opposition to the Bush Administration

Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of  comments about President George W. Bush, his administration and the Iraq War. During an interview with Ted Leitner for San Diego's 760 KFMB, in October 2002, Belafonte referenced a quote made by Malcolm X. [ [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021010.asp#6 Jennings Hypes Saudi Opposition to Iraq War - 10/10/2002 - Media Research Center CyberAlert ] ] Belafonte said: : "There is an old saying, in the days of slavery. There were those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master, do exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. That gave you privilege. Colin Powell is committed to come into the house of the master, as long as he would serve the master, according to the master's purpose. And when Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture. And you don't hear much from those who live in the pasture."Belafonte used the quote to characterize both former and current United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both African-Americans. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate" [ [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/10/15/belafonte.powell/ CNN.com - Belafonte won't back down from Powell slave reference - Oct. 14, 2002 ] ] and Rice saying "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black". [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,66288,00.html FOXNews.com - Powell, Rice Accused of Toeing the Line - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum ] ] The comment was brought back up in an interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now! in 2006. [ [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/157217&mode=thread&tid=25 Democracy Now! | Harry Belafonte on Bush, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and Having His Conversations with Martin Luther King Wiretapped by the FBI ] ] In January 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor Danny Glover and activist/professor Cornel West meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. In 2005, Chávez, an outspoken Bush critic, initiated a program to provide cheaper heating fuel for poor people in several areas of the United States. Belafonte supported this initiative. [ [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/01/08/2003288040 Taipei Times - archives ] ] During the meeting with Chávez, Belafonte was quoted as saying, "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people... support your revolution." [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10767465/ Belafonte calls Bush ‘greatest terrorist’ - Americas - MSNBC.com ] ] Belafonte and Glover met again with Chavez in 2006. [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214973,00.html FOXNews.com - Chavez Repeats 'Devil' Comment at Harlem Event - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News ] ] The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge his presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them. [ [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/382483p-324705c.html] ] AARP, which had just named him one of their 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released a statement following the remarks, saying, "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable". [ [http://www.aarp.org/research/press-center/presscurrentnews/harry_belafonte_comments.html AARP Reacts to Comments by Harry Belafonte ] ] On a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at Duke University in 2006, Belafonte compared the American government to the 9/11 hijackers, saying, "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?" [ [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/157217 Democracy Now! | Harry Belafonte on Bush, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and Having His Conversations with Martin Luther King Wiretapped by the FBI ] ] In response to criticism about his remarks, Belafonte asked, "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11 and the number of Americans wounded in war is almost triple? [...] By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist."  When he was asked about his expectation of criticism for his remarks on the war in Iraq, Belafonte responded: "Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy". [ [http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=50447 The Daily Beacon ] ] [ [http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=50471 The Daily Beacon ] ] In another interview, Belafonte remarked that while his comments may have been "hasty", nevertheless he felt the Bush administration suffered from "arrogance wedded to ignorance," and its policies around the world were "morally bankrupt". [ [http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35313 POLITICS-US: Belafonte on Thinking Outside the Ballot Box ] ] In January 2006, in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte referred to "the new Gestapo of Homeland Security" saying "You can be arrested and have no right to counsel!" [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182413,00.html FOXNews.com - Belafonte Blasts 'Gestapo' Security - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum ] ] During the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at the Duke University in January 2006, Belafonte said that if he could choose his epitaph, it would be, "Harry Belafonte, Patriot". [ [http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/01/belafonte_speech.html Harry Belafonte Speaks at Duke ] ]

Family

Belafonte and Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They have two daughters: Adrienne and Shari. Shari Belafonte, married to Sam Behrens, is a photographer, model, singer and actress. In 1997, Adrienne Biesemeyer and her daughter Rachel Blue, [http://www.anirfoundation.org/ Anir Experience ] ] Adrienne founded the Anir Foundation [ [http://www.anirfoundation.org Anir Experience ] ] and the Anir Experience.  Anir focuses on humanitarian work in Southern Africa.

On March 8, 1957 Belafonte married his second wife, Julie Robinson (former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company). [http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/archives/O/a/ucl0292.shtml Science Blog - UCLA News ] ]   They have two children, David and Gina Belafonte. David Belafonte (a former model) is an Emmy award winning producer and the executive director of the family-held company Belafonte Enterprises Inc. As a music producer he has been involved in most of Harry Belafonte's albums and tours. He married Danish model and singer Malena Mathiesen, in 2000. Gina is a TV and film actress and has worked with her father as coach and producer in over 6 films. Gina is one of the founding members of The Gathering For Justice a non profit organization inspired by her father, that is an inter-generational, intercultural organization working to reintroduce nonviolence to our communities to stop child incarceration . She is married to actor Scott McCray.

Belafonte lives in a 14 room apartment at 300 West End Avenue in New York City.

In October, 1998, Belafonte contributed a letter to Liv Ullman's book "Letters to my Grandchildren" [cite book|last=Ullman|first=Liv|title=Letters to my Grandchildren|editor=Liv Ullman|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|date=October 1998|isbn=0871137283|url=http://www.amazon.com/Letter-My-Grandchild-Liv-Ullmann/dp/0871137283|language=English] . Belafonte's grandchildren include Adrienne's son, Brian [ [http://www.artsusa.org/services/annual_awards/public_leadership/legendary_legacy_lifetime/006.asp Harry Belafonte ] ] and daughter, Rachel, David's daughter, Sarafina and son, Amadeus as well as a Gina's daughter Maria.

Discography

*"Mark Twain And Other Folk Favourites" (1954)
*"Belafonte" (1956)
* "Calypso" (1956)
* "An Evening with Belafonte" (1957)
* "Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean" (1957)
* "To Wish You A Merry Christmas" (1958)
* "Belafonte Sings the Blues" (1958)
* "Love Is A Gentle Thing" (1959)
* "Porgy And Bess" (1959)
* "Belafonte at Carnegie Hall" (1959)
* "My Lord What A Morning" (1959)
* "Belafonte Returns To Carnegie Hall" (1960)
* "Swing Dat Hammer" (1960)
* "Jump Up Calypso" (1961)
* "Midnight Special" (1962)
* "The Many Moods Of Belafonte" (1962)
*"Streets I Have Walked" (1963)
*"Belafonte At The Greek Theatre" (1964)
*"Ballads, Blues And Boasters" (1964)
*"An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba" (1965)
*"An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri" (1966)
*"In My Quiet Room" (1966)
*"Calypso in Brass" (1966)
*"Belafonte On Campus" (1967)
*"Belafonte Sings Of Love" (1968)
*"Homeward Bound" (1969)
*"Belafonte By Request" (1970)
*"Harry & Lena, For The Love Of Life" (1970)
*"The Warm Touch" (1971)
*"Calypso Carnival" (1971)
*"Belafonte...Live" (1972)
*"Play Me" (1973)
*"Concert In Japan" (1974)
*"Turn The World Around" (1977)
*"Loving You Is Where I Belong" (1981)
*"We Are The World" (1985)
*"Paradise In Gazankulu" (1988)
*"Belafonte '89" (1989)
*"An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends" (1997)
*"The Long Road To Freedom, An Anthology Of Black Music" (2001)
*"Belafonte Live Europe (only on mp3)" (2003)
*"The Essential Harry Belafonte" (2005)

Filmography

*"Bright Road" (1953)*"Carmen Jones" (1954)*"Island in the Sun" (1957)*"The Heart of Show Business" (1957) (short subject)*"The World, the Flesh and the Devil" (1959)*"Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959)*"King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis" (1970) (documentary) (narrator)*"The Angel Levine" (1970)*"Buck and the Preacher" (1972)*"Uptown Saturday Night" (1974)*"A veces miro mi vida" (1982)*"Drei Lieder" (1983) (short subject)*"Sag nein" (1983) (documentary)*"Der Schönste Traum" (1984) (documentary)*"We Shall Overcome" (1989) (documentary) (narrator)*"The Player" (1992) (Cameo)*"Ready to Wear" (1994) (Cameo)*"Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream" (1995)*"White Man's Burden" (1995)*"Jazz '34" (1996)*"Kansas City" (1996)*"Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist" (1998) (documentary)*"Fidel" (2001) (documentary)*"XXI Century" (2003) (documentary)*"Conakry Kas" (2003) (documentary)*"Ladders" (2004) (documentary) (narrator)*"Mo & Me" (2006) (documentary)*"Bobby" (2006)*"Motherland (film)(2009) In Production(documentary)

Television work

*"Sugar Hill Times" (1949-1950)*"Tonight With Belafonte" (1959)*"Petula" (1968)*"A World in Music" (1969)*"Harry & Lena, For The Love Of Life (1969)*"A World in Love" (1970)*"Free to Be… You and Me" (1974)*"The Muppet Show" (1978)*"Grambling's White Tiger" (1981)*"Don't Stop The Carnival" (1985)*"An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends" (1997)*"Swing Vote" (1999)*"Tanner on Tanner" (2004)*"That's What I'm Talking About" (2006) (miniseries)*"" (2006) (miniseries)

tage work

*"John Murray Anderson's Almanac" (December 10, 1953 - June 26, 1954)*"3 for Tonight" (April 6 - June 18, 1955)*"Moonbirds" (October 9 - October 10, 1959) (producer)*"Belafonte at the Palace" (December 15, 1959 - closing date unknown)*"Asinamali!" (April 23 - May 17, 1987) (producer)

References

External links

*imdb name | id=0000896| name=Harry Belafonte
* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=22172 Internet Broadway Database]
* [http://www.belafonte-asiteofsites.com/ "Harry Belafonte - a site of sites"]
* [http://www.akh.se/harbel/ Harry Belafonte discography]
* [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/15/1410245 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award] - Belafonte's acceptance speech in San Francisco
* [http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=12228 Ubben Lecture at DePauw University]
* [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/157217&mode=thread&tid=25 Democracy Now!] transcript/MP3/video of interview by Amy Goodman, January 30, 2006
* [http://www.salon.com/news/col/sullivan/2002/10/25/belafonte "The Bigotry of Belafonte"] - by Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, Oct. 25, 2002
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7424629562759717538&q=harry+belafonte "The Man Behind Belafonte's Music - Irving Burgie"] - by Ronald David Jackson, video,
* [http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/harrybelafonte/ Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks]
* [http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=145&category=EntertainmentMakers&occupation=Actor%2C%20Singer%20%26%20Humanitarian&name=Harry%20Belafonte The HistoryMakers] Biography and video clips
* [http://groups.imeem.com/QDIASkJ5,harry_belafonte_appreciation Harry Belafonte Appreciation Group] on [http://www.imeem.com Imeem]
* [http://www.discogs.com/release/1177631 Harry Belafonte: Belafonte At Carnegie Hall]