Harry Belafonte: Singer, actor, and activist who matched his genial persona with political commitment
Actor and singer Harry Belafonte poses for a portrait at a New York recording studio. Belafonte died on Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home. He was 96. Picture: AP
By the mid-1950s, the singer Harry Belafonte had taken the lead role in an Oscar-nominated film, ; reached No 1 with his album , which helped find a mainstream audience for that musical style and became the first album ever to sell more than 1m copies; and headlined major venues around the US.
However, Belafonte found himself unable to use the main entrance to the Las Vegas hotels where he regularly performed — nor could he eat, stay or gamble in them. On tour in the south, he faced an evening curfew because of his skin colour. When he starred with Joan Fontaine in the then controversial film about an interracial relationship, (1957), he was advised not to mention Fontaine in press interviews for fear of suggesting a romance between them. He learned that the power and respect that usually accompany fame and fortune could be largely illusory as far as black entertainers were concerned.
