Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (originally Belafonete; born March 1, 1927) is an American of Jamaican and Martiniquan descent who is a singer, actor, and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Belafonte has starred in several films. His first film role was in Bright Road (1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954). In 1957's Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and Joan Fontaine. The film also starred James Mason, Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, and John Justin. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he played a bank robber. He also co–starred with Inger Stevens in The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Preminger's Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping. Dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, he returned to music during the 1960s. But in the early 1970s Belafonte appeared in more films among which are two with Poitier: Buck and the Preacher (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). In 1984, Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street, dealing with the rise of hip–hop culture.
