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Biography
Youth and early career
From 1935 to 1939 he lived with his mother in the village of Aboukir in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. 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 starred in several films during the 1950s. These include the all black cast Carmen Jones and the then controversial Island in the Sun, for which he wrote and sang the title song.
Music
Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song," with its signature lyric "Day-O".
Calypso (1956)
His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first full-length album to sell over 1 million copies (Bing Crosby's White Christmas and Tennessee Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons, both vinyl singles, had previously surpassed the 1 million mark). The album is number four on Billboard's "Top 100 Album" list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the US charts. While primarily known for his Calypso songs, Belafonte has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes and American standards.
Belafonte continued to release albums through the 1950s and 1960s. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall, enjoyed critical and commercial success. His output in the 1970s slowed, and he released only one studio album in the 1980s, coinciding with a stronger focus on politics and activism. In the late 1990s a live album and dvd were released. The Long Road to Freedom, An Anthology of Black Music, a huge multi-artist project recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, was finally released in 2001.
Belafonte was the first African-American to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special Tonight with Belafonte (1959). He was also a guest star and sung on an episode of The Muppet Show (aired 1979).
He won a Grammy Award in 2000 for lifetime achievement, and was named one of nine 2006 Impact Award recipients by AARP The Magazine.
Political and humanitarian activism
Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and one of Martin Luther King's confidants. In 1968, Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC.
Belafonte speaking at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C
In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm, which made the show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, nervous. Plymouth wanted to cut out the segment but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired. American newspapers published articles reporting the controversy and when the special aired it grabbed high viewing figures. Clark's gesture marked the first time in which two people of different races made friendly bodily contact on US television.
Belafonte appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial "Mardi Gras" number with footage intercut from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots.
In 1985, he was one of the organizers behind the Grammy Award winning song "We Are The World," a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa, and performed in the Live Aid concert that same year.
In 1987, he received an appointment to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador. In 2002 Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa.
Belafonte has been involved in prostate cancer advocacy since 1996, when he was diagnosed and successfully treated for the disease.[1]
Controversial political statements
Belafonte began making controversial political statements in the early 1980s. He has, at various times, made statements praising Soviet peace initiatives, attacking the U.S. invasion of Grenada, praising the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (a Communist-affiliated group in the Spanish Civil War), honoring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and praising Fidel Castro.[2]
Belafonte only achieved widespread notoriety for his political views, however, in 2002, when he began making a series of incendiary comments about President George W. Bush, catalyzed by Belafonte's disapproval of the Iraq War.
In October 2002, Belafonte appeared on Democracy Now! where he quoted the civil rights era icon Malcolm X:
There was two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes, they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good 'cause they ate his food and what he left... In those days he was called a 'house nigger.' And that's what we call him today, because we've still got some house niggers running around here.
Belafonte used the quote to characterize both former and current United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both African-Americans, as "house slaves" for serving in Bush's cabinet, which he implied was racist, and for their refusal to stand against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was implying that, by going along with Bush's plans, the two were only serving the cause of their "master". He repeated the charge on an interview on Larry King Live. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate" [10] and Rice saying "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black." [11]
In August 2005, Belafonte made a similar analogy by saying "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich."[3]
Harry Belafonte in John Murray Anderson's Almanac on Broadway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1954
In January of 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor Danny Glover and activist/professor Cornel West which met with President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Belafonte was quoted as saying, "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people... support your revolution.
The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge his presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them.[5] AARP, which had just named him one of their 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released a statement following the remarks, saying, "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable."
On a Martin Luther King Day speech at Duke University in 2006, Belafonte claimed he found no difference between the American government and the hijackers of 9/11, saying, "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?"[7]
In January 2006, in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte said, "We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended."[8]
He recently signed a public statement comparing George W. Bush to Hitler and calling for his "regime" to be driven from power.[9]
Family
His daughter, Shari Belafonte, is a photographer, model and actress.
Quotes
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
Harry Belafonte in John Murray Anderson's Almanac on Broadway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1954
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)
