Ossie Davis

Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1995, then Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. Davis started his career in theatre acting with the Rose McClendon Players in the 1940s. He made his Broadway debut acting in the post-World War II play Jeb (1946). He earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination for his role in Jamaica (1958). He wrote and starred as the title character in the satirical farce Purlie Victorious (1961) which was adapted into a 1963 film and 1970 musical. Davis's credits as a film director include Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Black Girl (1972), and Gordon's War (1973). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Scalphunters (1968). Davis also acted in The Hill (1965), A Man Called Adam (1966), Let's Do It Again (1975), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Grumpy Old Men (1993), The Client (1994), and Dr. For his portrayal of Martin Luther King Sr. In the miniseries King (1978) he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He was also Emmy-nominated for his roles in Teacher, Teacher (1969), Miss Evers' Boys (1997), and The L Word (2005). He won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album with his wife Ruby Dee for Ossie and Ruby (2005).

Ossie Davis studied at Howard University and Columbia University School of General Studies. The recorded working language is French and English. Residence is recorded at New York City and Waycross. Works named in the authority record are Purlie Victorious. Distinctions recorded are National Medal of Arts, Marian Anderson Award, Daytime Emmy Award and James Parks Morton Interfaith Award.

• Name — Ossie Davis • Birth Name — Raiford Chatman Davis • Born — 18 December 1917 • Birthplace — Cogdell, Georgia, U.S. • Died — 4 February 2005 • Place of death — Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. • Education — Columbia University • Occupation — * Actor • director • poet • playwright • author • activist • Years Active — 1939–2005 • Children — 3, including Guy Davis

Raiford Chatman Davis was born in Cogdell, Georgia, the son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura (née Cooper; July 9, 1898 – June 6, 2004). He inadvertently became known as "Ossie" when his birth certificate was being filed and his mother's pronunciation of his name as "R. C. Davis" was misheard by the Clinch County courthouse clerk. Davis experienced racism from an early age when the KKK threatened to shoot his father, whose job they felt was too advanced for a black man to have. His siblings included scientist William Conan Davis, social worker Essie Davis Morgan, pharmacist Kenneth Curtis Davis, and biology teacher James Davis. Following the wishes of his parents, he attended Howard University but dropped out in 1939 to fulfill his desire for an acting career in New York after a recommendation by Alain Locke; he later attended Columbia University School of General Studies. His acting career began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. During World War II, Davis served in the United States Army in the Medical Corps. He made his film debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out.

• Illustration — Portrait by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 When Davis wanted to pursue a career in acting, he ran into the usual roadblocks that black people suffered at that time as they generally could only portray stereotypical characters such as Stepin Fetchit. Instead, he tried to follow the example of Sidney Poitier and play more distinguished characters. When he found it necessary to play a Pullman porter or a butler, he played those characters realistically, not as a caricature. Davis performed in the musical Jamaica, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination in 1958. In 1961, he wrote and starred in the Broadway play Purlie Victorious, a farce satirizing the confederate south. Davis portrayed the title character Purlie Victorious Judson, acting opposite Ruby Dee and Alan Alda. The play was adapted into a film titled Gone Are the Days!, released in 1963. The Broadway cast reprised their roles for the film. Howard Taubman for The New York Times wrote of the play: "It is marvelously exhilarating to hear the Negro speak for himself, especially when he does so in the fullness of his native gusto and the enveloping heartiness of his overflowing laughter."

Early television appearances for Davis included The Defenders, Car 54, Where Are You?, The Fugitive, and Bonanza. In addition to acting, Davis, along with Melvin Van Peebles and Gordon Parks, was one of the notable black directors of his generation: he directed movies such as Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Black Girl (1972), and Gordon's War (1973). Along with Bill Cosby and Poitier, Davis was one of a handful of black actors able to find commercial success while avoiding stereotypical roles prior to 1970, which also included a significant role in the Otto Preminger directed drama The Cardinal (1963) and the Sidney Lumet prison drama The Hill (1965). He acted in the musical drama A Man Called Adam (1966), performing alongside Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, and Cicely Tyson. He played Joseph Lee in the Sydney Pollack-directed western drama The Scalphunters, acting alongside Burt Lancaster and Shelley Winters. For his performance, Davis received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praised Davis's performance in the film writing: "Davis, as an educated slave, is gradually initiated into the brutal realities of frontier life. [He] emerges as a genuine comic talent in a very demanding role (actually the lead, although Lancaster gets top billing). His character changes from an Uncle Tom to a rough-and-ready cowboy before your very eyes." During this time, he acted in the western comedy Sam Whiskey (1969) with Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson, the drama Slaves (1969), starring Dionne Warwick, and the action comedy Hot Stuff (1979) with Dom DeLuise and Suzanne Pleshette. Davis starred with Cosby and Poitier in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again. As a playwright, Davis wrote Paul Robeson: All-American, which is frequently performed in theatre programs for young audiences. In 1976, Davis appeared on Muhammad Ali's novelty album for children, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay. He starred as Martin Luther King Sr. in the NBC miniseries King (1978) for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and played Dad Jones in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979). Davis found recognition late in his life by working in several of director Spike Lee's films, including School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Get on the Bus (1996), and She Hate Me (2004). For the final moments of Malcolm X, Davis, in voiceover, recited the actual eulogy that he wrote and delivered at Malcolm's funeral 27 years earlier.

• Illustration — Davis in 2000 Davis found work as a commercial voice-over artist and served as the narrator of the early-1990s CBS sitcom Evening Shade, starring Burt Reynolds, where he also played one of the residents of a small southern town. Davis and Reynolds had also worked together on Reynolds' previous TV series, B.L. Stryker (1989–1990), aired as part of the ABC Mystery Movie series. He also appeared in several popular 1990s films, including the studio comedies Grumpy Old Men (1993) starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and Cop and a Half (1993) with Burt Reynolds, as well as the John Grisham drama film The Client (1994) starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. He reunited with Spike Lee acting in the film Get on the Bus (1996) and appeared his HBO documentary 4 Little Girls (1997) which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 1998 he acted in the Eddie Murphy led comedy film Dr. Dolittle. In 1999, he appeared as a theater caretaker in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra film The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, which was released on DVD two years later. For many years, he hosted the annual National Memorial Day Concert from Washington, D.C. In 1994, Davis played Judge Richard Farris in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand. From 1995 to 1996, he played Judge Harry Roosevelt in the CBS legal drama The Client (reprising his role from the 1994 film). Davis played Erasmus Jones in Promised Land from 1996 to 1998. The series was a spinoff from Touched by an Angel where he played multiple characters from 1996 to 2000. He played Mr. Evers in the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys (1997) starring Laurence Fishburne and Alfre Woodard. The film won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. That same year he acted in the Showtime television film 12 Angry Men (1997) playing Juror #2. He acted in an ensemble cast acting alongside Courtney B. Vance, George C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Jack Lemmon, and Hume Cronyn. He voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street in its animation segments. He also narrated the HBO Storybook Musicals adaptation of The Red Shoes aired on February 7, 1990. In 1997 he was the narrator in Ken Burns' two-part documentary on Thomas Jefferson. In 2000, he voiced the role of Yar in Disney's live-action animated film Dinosaur. From 1999 to 2000, he played Mr. Parker in the NBC crime drama Third Watch. He also took roles in the TV film Deacons for Defense (2003), and episodes of Cosby and JAG. Davis's last role was a several episode Emmy-nominated guest role on the Showtime drama series The L Word, as a father struggling with the acceptance of his daughter Bette (Jennifer Beals) parenting a child with her lesbian partner. In his final episodes, his character took ill and died. His wife Ruby Dee was present during the filming of his own death scene. That episode, which aired shortly after Davis's own death, aired with a dedication to the actor. After Davis's death, actor Dennis Haysbert portrayed him in the 2015 film Experimenter.

• Illustration — Davis and Dee In 1948, Davis married actress Ruby Dee, whom he had met on the set of Robert Ardrey's 1946 play Jeb. In their joint autobiography With Ossie and Ruby, they described their decision to have an open marriage, later changing their minds. In the mid-1960s they moved from their long-time home in Mt. Vernon, NY to the New York suburb of New Rochelle, where they remained ever after. Their son Guy Davis is a blues musician and former actor, who appeared in the film Beat Street (1984) and the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. Their daughters are Nora Davis Day and Hasna Muhammad.

Davis and Dee were well known as civil rights activists during the Civil Rights Movement and were close friends of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. and other icons of the era. They were involved in organizing the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and served as its emcees. Davis, alongside Ahmed Osman, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. He re-read part of this eulogy at the end of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X. He also delivered a stirring tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, at a memorial in New York's Central Park the day after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Davis was found dead in a Miami Beach hotel room on February 4, 2005. He was 87 years old. An official cause of death was not released, but he was known to have had heart problems. Davis's funeral was held in New York City on February 12, 2005. The line to enter The Riverside Church, located on the edge of Harlem, stretched for several blocks, with a thousand or more members of the public unable to attend as the church filled to its 2,100 capacity. Speakers included Davis's children and grandchildren, as well as Alan Alda, Burt Reynolds, Amiri Baraka, Avery Brooks, Angela Bassett, Spike Lee, Attallah Shabazz, Tavis Smiley, Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, Harry Belafonte, and former president Bill Clinton, among many others. Wynton Marsalis performed a musical tribute. Burt Reynolds, who early in his career had worked with Davis, said "Ossie Davis took the bad parts of the South out of me.... I know what a man is because of Ossie Davis." Ms. Shabazz, oldest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, spoke lovingly of the man she and her five sisters called Uncle Ossie, saying he had provided exceptional support to her and her sisters after her father's assassination. Bill Clinton arrived midway through the service, and said from the pulpit "I asked to be seated in the back. I would proudly ride on the back of Ossie Davis's bus any day," adding that Davis "would have made a great president." Delivering the eulogy, Harry Belafonte said: Ossie Davis "embraced the greatest forces of our times. Paul Robeson, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Eleanor Roosevelt, A. Philip Randolph, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and so many, many more. At the time of one of our most anxious and conflicted moments, when 'Our America' was torn apart by seething issues of race, Ossie paused, at the tomb of one of our noblest warriors, and in the eulogy he delivered, insured that history would clearly understand the voice of Black people, and what Malcolm X meant to us in the African-American struggle for freedom.... It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humor, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought. But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did." He was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery. His urn was given to his widow, Ruby, afterwards. Nine years later, Ruby was cremated after her passing. Her ashes were placed into the same urn as Ossie.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1955 — Kraft Theatre — Brutus Jones — Episode: "The Emperor Jones" • 1960 — Play of the Week — Will Harris — 2 episodes • 1960 — Playhouse 90 — Performer — Episode: "John Brown's Raid" • 1961 — The Defenders — District Attorney — 8 episodes • 1962 — Seven Times Monday — Will — Television movie • 1962 — The Catholic Hour — Performer — Episode: "The Sign of Fire" • 1962–1963 — Car 54, Where Are You? — Officer Omar Anderson — 6 episodes • 1963 — The Great Adventure — John Ross — Episode: "Go Down, Moses" • 1964 — The Doctors and the Nurses — Dr. Farmer — Episode: "The Family Resemblance" • 1964 — CBS Show of the Week — Performer — Episode: "Neighbours" • 1966 — The Fugitive — Lieutenant Johnny Gaines — Episode: "Death is the Door Prize" • 1966–1967 — Run for Your Life — Performer — 3 episodes • 1967 — 12 O'Clock High — Major Glenn Luke — Episode: "The Graveyard" • 1968 — N.Y.P.D. — Dempsey — 2 episodes • 1969 — Bonanza — Sam Davis — Episode: "The Wish" • 1969 — The Name of the Game — Kubani — Episode: "The Third Choice" • 1969 — Night Gallery — Osmund Portifoy — Pilot; Segment: "The Cemetery" • 1971 — The Sheriff — Sheriff James Lucas — Television movie • 1973 — Love, American Style — Performer — Episode: "Love and High Spirits" • 1974 — Hawaii Five-O — Ramon Borelle — Episode: "Hara-Kiri: Murder" • 1976 — The Tenth Level — Reed — Television movie • 1977 — Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid — Dr. Fredericks — Television movie • 1978 — King — Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. — Miniseries • 1979 — Roots: The Next Generations — Dad Jones — Miniseries • Freedom Road — Narrator — Television movie • 1980 — All God's Children — Blaine Whitfield — Television movie • 1980–1981 — Ossie and Ruby! — Co-host — TV Series • 1981 — Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige — Chuffy Russell — Television movie • Death of a Prophet — Himself — Television movie • 1989 — Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved the Stars — Performer — Television movie • 1989–1990 — B.L. Stryker — 'Oz' Jackson — 12 episodes • 1990 — We'll Take Manhattan — Man in Subway — Television movie • 1990–1994 — Evening Shade — Ponder Blue — 99 episodes • 1993 — Alex Haley's Queen — Parson Dick — Miniseries • The Ernest Green Story — Grandfather — Television movie • 1994 — The Stand — Judge Richard Farris — Miniseries; 4 episodes • 1995 — Ray Alexander — Uncle Phil — Television movie • The Android Affair — Dr. Winston — Television movie • 1995–1996 — The Client — Judge Harry Roosevelt — 14 episodes • 1996 — Home of the Brave — Erasmus Jones — Television movie • 1996–1998 — Promised Land — Erasmus Jones — 10 episodes • 1996–2002 — Touched by an Angel — Erasmus Jones / Gabriel / Gabe — 6 episodes • 1997 — Miss Evers' Boys — Mr. Evers — Television movie • 12 Angry Men — Juror #2 — Television movie • 1999 — Cosby — Fred — Episode: "Ol' Betsy" • The Secret Path — 'Too Tall' — Television movie • The Soul Collector — Mordecai — Television movie • The Ghosts of Christmas Eve — The Caretaker — Television movie • A Vow to Cherish — Alexander Billman — Television movie • 1999–2000 — Third Watch — Mr. Parker — 3 episodes • 2001 — Between the Lions — Woodcutter — Episode: Bug Beard • 2000 — Finding Buck McHenry — Buck McHenry — Television movie • 2001 — Legend of the Candy Cane — Julius — Voice; Television movie • The Feast of All Saints — Jean-Jacques — Television movie • 2002 — Persidio Med — Otis Clayton — Episode: "This Baby's Gonna Fly" • 2003 — Deacons for Defense — Reverend Gregory — Television movie • JAG — Terrence Minnerly — Episode: "Close Quarters" • 2004–2005 — The L Word — Melvin Porter — Final appearance; 4 episodes

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1939 — Joy Exceeding Glory — Reverend Stokes — Rose McClendon Players • 1940 — On Strivers Row — Chuck Reynolds • 1940 — Booker T. Washington — Fred • 1941 — Black Women in White — Performer • 1946 — Jeb — Jeb Turner — Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway • 1946 — Anna Lucasta — Rudolph — Mansfield Touring Company • 1948 — The Leading Lady — Trem — National Theatre, Broadway • 1949 — The Smile of the World — Stewart — Lyceum Theatre, Broadway • 1949 — Stevedore — Lonnie Thompson — Equity Library Theatre • 1950 — The Wisteria Trees — Jacques — Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway • 1951 — The Royal Family — Jo — City Center, Broadway • 1951 — The Green Pastures — Gabriel — Broadway Theatre, Broadway • 1951 — Remains to Be Seen — Al — Morosco Theatre, Broadway • 1953 — Touchstone — Dr. Joseph Clay — Music Box Theatre, Broadway • 1955 — The Wisteria Trees — Jacques — City Center, Broadway • 1956 — No Time for Sergeants — A Lieutenant — Alvin Theatre • 1957 — Jamaica — Cicero — Imperial Theatre, Broadway • 1959 — A Raisin in the Sun — Walter Lee Younger (replacement) — Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway • 1961 — Purlie Victorious — Purlie Victorious / Also writer — Cort Theatre, Broadway • 1963 — Ballad for Bimshire — Sir Radio — Mayfair Theatre • 1865 — The Zulu and the Zayda — Johannes — Cort Theatre • 1972 — Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death — Performer — Ethel Barrymore Theatre • 1979 — Take It from the Top — The Lord / Also director — New Federal Theatre • 1983 — Zora Is My Name! — Performer — American Playhouse • 1986 — I'm Not Rappaport — Midge (replacement) — Booth Theatre, Broadway • 1988 — A Celebration of Paul Robeson — Performer — Shubert Theatre, Broadway • 1995 — Two Hah Hahs and a Homeboy — Performer — Crossroads Theatre Company