Ossie Davis

 Ossie Davis, born Raiford Chatman Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005)

Davis was a film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and civil rights activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death in 2005. He and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.He made his film debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out. He also voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street in its animation segments. When Davis wanted to pursue a career in acting, he ran into the usual roadblocks that blacks suffered at that time as they generally could only portray stereotypical characters such as Stepin Fetchit. Instead, he tried to follow the example of Sidney Poitier and play more distinguished characters. When he found it necessary to play a Pullman porter or a butler, he played those characters realistically, not as a caricature. In addition to acting, Davis, along with Melvin Van Peebles and Gordon Parks, was one of the notable African-American directors of his generation: he directed movies such as Gordon's War, Black Girl and Cotton Comes to Harlem. Along with Bill Cosby and Poitier, Davis was one of a handful of African American actors able to find commercial success while avoiding stereotypical roles prior to 1970, which also included a significant role in the 1965 movie The Hill alongside Sean Connery plus roles in The Cardinal and The Scalphunters.

However, Davis never had the tremendous commercial or critical success that Cosby and Poitier enjoyed. As a playwright, Davis wrote Paul Robeson: All-American, which is frequently performed in theatre programs for young audiences. Davis found recognition late in his life by working in several of director Spike Lee's films, including Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, She Hate Me and Get on the Bus. Davis was found dead in a Miami, Florida, hotel room on February 4, 2005. An official cause of death was not released, but he was known to have heart problems.