April 2007
 Actress
Ruby Dee is widely admired for the emotional truth
she brings to her characters. She received the National Medal
of Arts in 1995. While studying at Hunter College in the 1940s,
Dee started working at the American Negro Theater in New York.
On Broadway and nationwide, Dee began to attract attention for
her theatrical roles, notably as the lead in Anna Lucasta,
opposite Ossie Davis, who would become her life partner. She won
an Obie for her role as Lena in a 1971 production of Boesman
and Lena.
Dee has acted in more than 36 films, including playing Rae Robinson
in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Leah Matanzima in
Cool Red (1976), and Lucinda Purify in Jungle Fever
(1991). More than 60 television roles include Bessie Delaney in
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, adapted
from the popular memoir. Dee won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken
Word Album in 2007, for the audio version of her memoir With
Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together.
Screened by NMAI
Selected Bibliography
- Glowchild. Author: Ruby Dee. New York: The Third Press,
1972.
- My One Good Nerve: Rhythms, Rhymes, Reasons. New York:
Third World Press, 1987.
- With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. Authors:
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,
1998.
Image Credit:
Ruby Dee in Naming Number Two - courtesy of The New Zealand
Film Commission
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