Dorothy Jean Dandridge

 Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965)

She is perhaps best-known for being the first black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles. In 1954, she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Carmen Jones, and, in 1959, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Porgy and Bess. She is the subject of the 1999 HBO biographical film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sadly, Dorothy died at age 42, and there are two conflicting reports as to the cause. A Los Angeles pathology determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. However, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office came to a different conclusion: “Miss Dandridge died of a rare embolism—blockage of the blood passages at the lungs and brain by tiny pieces of fat flaking off from bone marrow in a fractured right foot she sustained in a Hollywood film five days before she died.” Dorothy Dandridge was cremated, and interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale.