Born in Jamaica, Harry Belafonte rose to fame in the 1950s for his music with a Caribbean flavor. He is a well-known actor, singer, composer, and record producer in addition to his many other talents.
Harry Belafonte, who is he?
Page Contents
Belafonte was raised in Jamaica after being born in New York City’s Harlem in 1927. His efforts led to the spread of Caribbean music outside of the tropics. Many of his followers know him for the song The Banana Boat Song, also known as Day-O! The song was inspired by Belafonte’s time in Kingston and is a call-and-response Jamaican ballad. “Daylight arrives and we want to go home, so we work all night on a sip of rum,” the singer croons.
With this song and other songs on Calypso, the first album to sell over a million copies in a year, he became a household name.
Movies with Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte, an actor, and producer, starred in and worked on several big-budget movies. He made his debut as a leading man in the 1953 film “Bright Road” starring Dorothy Dandridge.
His final two movies with Dandridge were Uptown Saturday Night in 1974 and Buck and the Preacher in 1972. In 1959, Tonight with Belafonte, his first television program on his own, earned Belafonte an Emmy.
Belafonte made history by becoming the first black actor to win a Tony Award for his work in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. In the 1990s, Belafonte collaborated with John Travolta on “White Man’s Burden.”
He was also chosen for the role of Kansas City in Robert Altman’s movie. His most recent screen performance was as an old civil rights pioneer in Spike Lee’s 2018 movie BlacKkKlansman.
Who has Belafonte backed in terms of organizations?
Belafonte has consistently been an activist over the years. He goes into great detail about this in his book My Song, which was turned into a documentary movie in 2011.
His activism peaked during the Civil Rights Movement when he became friends with Martin Luther King Jr. According to King’s memoir, Belafonte raised funds to help liberate him and numerous other people who were detained during the Birmingham campaigns of 1963.
He supported voter registration campaigns, which helped make the 1963 March on Washington—which he organized—possible. We Are the World, a fund-raising initiative for Africa that earned a Grammy in 1985, is one of Belafonte’s many charity endeavors.
He has contributed greatly to South African HIV/AIDS research and prevention efforts. He was not only a Grand Marshal of the New York City Pride Parade in 2013 but also the Honorary Co-Chair of the Women’s March on Washington in 2017.
Also Read Eniko Hart And Her Parents, Especially Her Mother, Are Very Close
