The world has lost a great actor and an even greater force for good. Ossie Davis, the longtime activist and acclaimed stage and screen star, was found dead earlier today in a Miami hotel room. The 87-year-old actor was in Florida, where he had just started filming a new movie. Davis' death was reportedly due to natural causes.
With his rich baritone and powerful stage presence, Davis made his mark as an actor, playwright, and spoken-word artist over a distinguished career that lasted nearly 60 years. His C.V. is too long to recount here — see Davis' New York Times filmography and this biography from Howard University, his alma mater, if you need details about his work as an actor, writer, producer, author, and director. I have to mention, however, Purlie Victorious: Davis, for many, is best known for writing and starring in this groundbreaking 1961 Broadway satire that took on "racial" stereotypes and segregation. (I was quite a fan of its 1970 musical adaptation, Purlie!.) Younger people may recall him as an actor in many of Spike Lee's movies, among them, Do the Right Thing and Get on the Bus; as Eddie Murphy's dad in the 1998 version of the film Dr. Doolittle (which my son and I, coincidentally, watched last night); or as cohost of syndicated television's "Black Heritage" movie series.
Much of Davis' professional success came in partnership with his spouse of 56 years, the legendary actor and activist Ruby Dee. Together, they were in a class with the likes of Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. And America knew it: In 1995, Davis and Dee received the National Medal of Arts and were called "national treasures." In 2000, they received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. And just last year, Davis and Dee were both recipients of Kennedy Center Honors.
The fight for justice was probably more important to the pair than their devotion to the performing arts. Davis has been lauded for his participation in the 1963 March on Washington for Civil Rights and for giving the eulogies for both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. He also raised money for the Freedom Riders, and much of his artistic work was devoted to teaching Americans about history and the costs of racism. Just as important, Davis, with Dee, spent much effort in showing historically oppressed people that they could achieve. As Davis was once quoted, "The profoundest commitment possible to a black creator in this country today — beyond all creeds, crafts, classes and ideologies whatsoever — is to bring before his people the scent of freedom."
![Do the Right Thing [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510GY2KCPML._SL120_.jpg)
![Cotton Comes to Harlem [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21NPTB82MCL._SL120_.jpg)
![The Client [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RSMZESJ1L._SL120_.jpg)
![Get on the Bus [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B7P9ME96L._SL120_.jpg)
![Baadasssss (Dol) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A3ZF7EBZL._SL120_.jpg)
![I'm Not Rappaport [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QGGFA2V9L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - DrPat
You missed Joe vs. the Volcano, ASIN B0002WZS3U.
Davis' role was essential to the story, and (as always) beautifully played.
2 - Natalie Davis
No, I didn't miss it; it was an enjoyable film, if I recall, and Ossie Davis was great in it. The system only allows 10 amazon-dot-crap choices (which causes me untold distress every time I put together something for BC). If it had permitted more, JVTV would have been included. Thank you, though, for mentioning the film.
3 - Al Barger
Thank you, Miss Natalie. This is a good, positive contribution to the site. You were just the person here for this topic.
I confess to having been ignorant of much of this biography, knowing him primarily as Da Mayor. I knew that he'd had a long career, but I didn't realize quite the breadth and depth of it.
4 - Al Barger
Also, the limit of 10 Amazon choices apparently does not hold. I'd heard the same thing, but accidentally discovered that I could get at least 12 items, as per this week's new album releases post.
5 - Nick Jones
2/04 was a day of loss of several celebrities: Ossie Davis; Max Schmeling (fought Joe Louis in the Thirties, but refused to becaome part of Hitler's 'Master Race' propaganda machine); John Vernon (The Outlaw Josey Wales, I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, and, of course, Animal House (Dean Wormer)).
Rest in peace, all.
6 - SFC SKI
Great article, Ossie Davis deserved the acclaim he got, on screen and off, he always had a high level of dignity that came across to the viewer.
7 - Natalie Davis
Dean Wormer, oh no! Thanks for passing on the sad news, Mr. Jones.
8 - Al Barger
I'm sure Dean Wormer's in heaven (or the other place) right now, putting John Belushi back on double secret probation.
9 - Rodney Welch
Natalie -- Nice work on Ossie Davis, a consistently watchable actor. I never much cared for him in Do the Right Thing, but he was great as the preacher father in Jungle Fever whose junkie son (Samuel L. Jackson) is beyond his reach.
Nick -- Read the NYTimes obit. Sounds to me like old Max went above and beyond the call of duty for Der Fuhrer. Sure he regretted it, but so did Leni Riefenstahl.
... while many of Schmeling's Jewish friends fled for their lives, Schmeling remained and made the transition to the Nazi era, which he regularly defended in the American news media, with disconcerting ease.
10 - Eric Olsen
thanks Nat, super and hearfelt tribute - DAvis was an unbeatable combo of dignity and vulnerability
11 - ClubhouseCancer
Great job about a great man, Nat. Like so many in the civil-rights struggle, he used his formidable powers as an artist for the good of all of us.