Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Belafonte on March 1, 1927 in Harlem, New York, United States, is a Jamaican-American calypso musician and actor who used his fame as an entertainer in the cause of human rights.

He is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song" with its signature lyric "Day-O". His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first album to sell over 1 million copies. He was the first African-American to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special “tonight with Belafonte”.

He appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial "Mardi Gras" number with footage intercut from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Belafonte has gained notoriety for his left wing political views and has called both former and current United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice "house slaves".

From 1935 to 1939 he lived with his mother in her homeland Jamaica. When he returned to New York he attended George Washington High school after which he joined the navy and served during the second world war. At the end of the 1940s he took classes in acting and subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in John Murray Anderson's Almanac.

He has won a Grammy Award in 1985 for lifetime achievement and has been made a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

His daughter, Shari Belafonte, is a photographer, model and actress.

Quote

"I work for the United Nations. I go to places where enormous upheaval and pain and anguish exist. And a lot of it exists based upon American policy. Whom we support, whom we support as heads of state, what countries we've helped to overthrow, what leaders we've helped to diminish because they did not fit the mold we think they should fit, no matter how ill advised that thought may be." – Harry Belafonte interview on CNN Larry King Live, October 15, 2002

Filmography

• Bright Road (1953)
• Carmen Jones (1954)
• The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)
• Island in the Sun (1957)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) (also producer)
• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Angel Levine (1970) (also producer)
• Buck and the Preacher (1972) (also producer)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
• Sometimes I Watch My Life (1982) (documentary)
• Say No (1983) (documentary)
• Three Songs (1983) (short subject)
• We Shall Overcome (1989) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Player (1992) (Cameo)
• Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
• Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream (1995) (documentary)
• White Man's Burden (1995)
• Jazz '34 (1996) (documentary)
• Kansas City (1996)
• Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998) (documentary)
• Fidel (2001) (documentary)
• XXI Century (2003) (documentary)

External links

• Harry Belafonte – a site of sites
• 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award – Belafonte's acceptance speech in San Francisco