Ruby Dee
Birthday: Born in 1922-10-27 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Deathday: 2014-06-11
Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 - June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun. Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Do the Right Thing (1989) and American Gangster (2007).
TV Credits
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Character: Mary Wilson
A Las Vegas team of forensic investigators are trained to solve criminal cases by scouring the crime scene, collecting irrefutable evidence and finding the missing pieces that solve the mystery....
Spenser: For Hire
Character:
Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode....
The Great Adventure
Character: Harriet Tubman
The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, narrated each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented a weekly one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important historical events in American History....
The Golden Girls
Character: Mammy Watkins
Four Southern Florida seniors share a house, their dreams, and a whole lot of cheesecake. Bright, promiscuous, clueless and hilarious, these lovely, mismatched ladies form the perfect circle of friends....
China Beach
Character:
Dateline: November 1967. Within klicks of Danang, Vietnam, sits a U.S. Army base, bar and hospital on China Beach filled with wounded soldiers and one very lovely but damaged Army Nurse Colleen McMurphy. Many heroes, dead and alive, try to make sense of life and death in between bourbon, bullets and battles....
Little Bill
Character:
Little Bill is a television show for children that is presently on Nick Jr. The stories are based on Bill Cosby's Little Bill book series, set in Philadelphia and feature Bill Jr. learning a lesson or moral. It was developed through research and in consultation with a panel of educational consultants. The show also aired on CBS as part of Nick Jr. on CBS, from September 16, 2000 - September 7, 2002, then as part of Nick on CBS from August 2, 2003 - September 10, 2005. The show returned with the...
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Rowena Finch
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
The Stand
Character: Mother Abagail
After a deadly plague kills most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a maleficent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil....
Police Woman
Character:
Sergeant “Pepper"” Anderson, an undercover cop for the Criminal Conspiracy Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, poses undercover from mob girl to prostitute....
The Fugitive
Character: Laura Smith
Richard Kimble is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derails and crashes, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man". At the same time, Dr. Kimble is hounded by the authorities, most notably dogged by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard....
Roots: The Next Generations
Character: Queen Victoria Haley
Roots: The Next Generations is a television miniseries, introduced in 1979, continuing, from 1882 to the 1960s, the fictionalized story of the family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, USA. This sequel to the 1977 miniseries is based on the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family plus additional material by Haley. Roots: The Next Generations was produced with a budget of $16.6 million, nearly three times as large as...
Iconoclasts
Character: Self
Iconoclasts is a Sundance Channel show. Each episode pairs two "creative visionaries" who discuss their lives, influences, and art, most of whom are longtime friends with the other person featured in the episode. The series premiered on November 17, 2005, and has had six six-episode seasons....
Middle Ages
Character: Estelle Williams
Middle Ages is an American comedy-drama television series that aired from September 3 until October 1, 1992....
The Defenders
Character: Catherine Collins
The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing....
The Kennedy Center Honors
Character: Self
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture....
Lincoln
Character: Elizabeth Keckley
"Lincoln" was a 1988 American television mini-series starring Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Richard Mulligan as William H. Seward. It was directed by Lamont Johnson and was based on Gore Vidal’s novel. It covers the time period running from Lincoln’s election as President of the United States to the time of his assassination. When released for home entertainment, the title was changed to "Gore Vidal's Lincoln" Lamont Johnson won an Emmy for directi...
Reading Rainbow
Character: Herself - Narrator (voice)
Journey to exciting places and build a lasting connection with your favorite books. Each episode centers on a theme from a book, or other children's literature, which is explored through a number of segments or stories....
American Experience
Character: Narrator (voice)
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today....
The Atlanta Child Murders
Character: Faye Williams
The Atlanta Child Murders is a TV miniseries that aired on February 10 and 12, 1985 on CBS. Inspired by true events, the miniseries examines the so-called "Atlanta child murders" of the late 1970s and early 1980s....
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Character: Grandma (voice)
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series....
The Dick Cavett Show
Character: Self - Guest
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks....
Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years
Character: Narrator
A two-series set produced by the A&E network which explores the history of Christianity and its impact on the world from the year 0 to 2000....
Touched by an Angel
Character: LaBelle Springbelt
Monica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives....
Great Performances
Character: Self
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries....
Movie Credits
Do the Right Thing
Character: Mother Sister
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise....
Jungle Fever
Character: Lucinda Purify
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse....
American Gangster
Character: Mama Lucas
Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Partly based on a true story....
America
Character: Mrs. Harper
In "America," Dr. Maureen Brennan, a psychiatrist at a youth treatment center, encounters her newest patient, a bi-racial boy named America. Through their sessions, Dr. Brennan helps America come to terms with his roller-coaster life, which began when he was taken by authorities from his crack-addicted mother, and placed into foster care as an infant. The short time of stability in his life occurred when America lived with Mrs. Harper, the elderly nanny to one of his foster families. Later reuni...
Cat People
Character: Female
After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat – and zoo curator Oliver to her. Soon, Paul will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they revert into predatory jungle cats....
Love at Large
Character: Corrine Dart
Vampish miss Dolan hires hardboiled P.I. Harry Dobbs to tail her shady boyfriend. Harry realizes that the man leads a double life but then his client disappears. Harry teams up with his own tail, P.I. Stella Wynkowski, to clear things up....
Jazztime Tale
Character: Narrator (voice)
Family - Set in Harlem in 1919, two girls - one white, one black - form a lifelong friendship through a chance encounter and the jazztime music of young "Fats" Waller....
Just Cause
Character: Evangeline Ferguson
A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child....
Cop and ½
Character: Rachel
When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, a hardboiled cop is forced to take his new partner seriously as they race the clock to bring the bad guys to justice....
Buck and the Preacher
Character: Ruth
A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West....
No. 2
Character: Nanna Maria
A matriarch organizes a feast with her family, in which she will name her successor. The heart has gone out of Nanna Maria's family. There are no parties — they don't even fight anymore......
The Tall Target
Character: Rachel
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861....
Edge of the City
Character: Lucy Tyler
An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager....
A Raisin in the Sun
Character: Ruth Younger
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall....
The Jackie Robinson Story
Character: Rae Robinson
Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues....
The Incident
Character: Joan Robinson
Two hoodlums terrorize the passengers of a late-night New York City subway train....
A Simple Wish
Character: Hortence
Murray is a male fairy godmother, and he is trying to help 8-year-old Anabel to fulfil her "simple wish" - that her father Oliver, who is a cab driver, would win the leading role in a Broadway musical. Unfortunately, Murray's magic wand is broken and the fairies convention is threatened by evil witches Claudia and Boots....
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
Character:
When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors were transcribed and preserved by the Library of Congress. These first-person anecdotes, ranging from the brutal to the bittersweet, have been brought to vivid life in this unique HBO documentary special, featuring the on-camera voices of over a dozen top African-American actors....
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Character: Nanny
A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the morals of her small town. Based on the novel by Zora Neale Hurston....
Politics of Love
Character:
Politics makes strange bedfellows, but never stranger than when a sexy, savvy, African-American conservative Republican reluctantly falls for his Democratic counterpart: a beautiful Indian-American Obama campaign volunteer. Sparks fly, tempers flare, heads turn, and romance blossoms for this mismatched pair of lovers in the frantic and intoxicating days leading up to Election Day. Can the politics of love conquer all?...
Feast of All Saints
Character: Elsie Claviere
Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught between the world of white privilege and black oppression....
Black Girl
Character: Netta's mother
An aspiring dancer and her two wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter....
Video Girl
Character: Valerie
Lorie Walker is a small town girl whose big dreams of becoming a dancer come true when she becomes a star in the Hip-Hop video world. But she soon learns the hard way that life in front of the camera is not as glamorous as it seems....
Decoration Day
Character: Rowena
A cantankerous widower (Garner) who is virtually living the life of a recluse is forced to rejoin his community when his Godchild (Skaggs) gets in trouble and a childhood friend (Cobbs), a black tenant farmer, refuses to belatedly accept a Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in World War II....
Uptight
Character: Laurie
Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own....
Finding Buck McHenry
Character: Mrs. Henry
When an 11 year old boy gets cut from his Little League baseball team, he sets out to form his own team....
Mr. and Mrs. Loving
Character: Sophia
A moving and uplifting drama about the effects of interracial marriage in the 1960s. Friends since childhood, and loved by both families, this couple are exiled after their wedding and have to wage a courageous battle to find their place in America as a loving family....
It's Good to Be Alive
Character: Ruth Campanella
This movie details the struggles of former Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella to adapt to life in a wheelchair following his crippling automobile accident in 1959. Cinematographer Ted Voigtlander was Emmy-nominated....
A Storm in Summer
Character: Grandmother
Set in 1969, Abel Shaddick, a crotchety deli owner, has a grudge against virtually everyone in his upstate New York town of Fairview, particularly against his slacker nephew Stanley who lives behind the shop. Without telling his uncle, Stanley agrees to put up a needy city kid for the summer as part of a charity program run by rich debutante Gloria. Abel immediately vetoes the plan, but it is too late. The kid, young Herman Washington, is already on his way......
Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal
Character: Self
The film chronicles the life and revolutionary times of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal....
Betty and Coretta
Character: Narrator
The widows of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and how they carry on as single mothers after the assassination of their husbands....
Steam
Character: Doris
Three women — a young coed, a forty-something single mother, and one a senior-aged widow — meet in the sauna of the local gym, where they gradually get to know one another and bond over their respective trials and tribulations....
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Character: Grandmother Baxter
Based on writer Maya Angelou's eloquent reminiscences of her days as a gifted youngster growing up in the South during the Depression years where she and her older brother were raised by their grandmother after the divorce of their parents....
Virgin Island
Character: Ruth
A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island....
Take a Giant Step
Character: Christine
This pioneering film in the history of African-American cinema, released two years before "A Raisin In The Sun", is the coming-of-age story of a Black high-school student living in a middle-class white neighborhood in the late '50s....
Tuesday Morning Ride
Character: Jennie
Tuesday Morning Ride is based on the short story "A Summer Tragedy" by Arna Bontemps, a Harlem Renaissance writer. Set in the 1930s, the story depicts an old man and woman -- he a stroke victim, she blind -- who feel they have nothing to live for since their children do not visit. They decide to put on their finest clothing and take a final ride in their car -- with no turning back. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film....
Gone Are the Days!
Character: Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins
A young, idealistic man returns home to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. With him, he brings his fiance, Lutiebelle, in hopes of convincing the plantation owner that she is really his cousin in order to secure the family inheritance. To aid in the comic complications that follow are his family members Missy and Gitlow, and the plantation owners endearing (but ineffectual) son Charlie....
After Goodbye
Character: Narrator
Award-winning actress Ruby Dee narrates this powerful documentary about the impact of AIDS on the families, friends and members of the acclaimed Turtle Creek Chorale. In the past decade, 145 member of the Chorale have died, most from HIV and AIDS. Although grief is a constant presence, After Goodbye: An AIDS Story shows that the singers and their loved ones are also engaged in a continual process of healing. This ultimately uplifting and inspirational video is a testament to the amazing strengt...
That Man of Mine
Character: Joan
Featuring the swinging sounds of the all-woman band The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and a young Ruby Dee, the 1946 musical showcases tenderness in romance and community through a series of musical numbers. The loosely connected plot follows film producers hoping to cast a stand-out actress for their next film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008....
Deadlock
Character: Lucinda
The murder of a journalist, coming shortly after the killings of a black teenager and a white cop, threatens to inflame passions in the city. To prevent a riot, Lieutenant Sam Danforth and District Attorney Leslie Washburn are determined to find the killer, even though they do not exactly get along with each other and disagree over procedure....
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Character: Mary Tyrone
Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family....
A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School
Character: Narrator (voice)
For a seventy-year period, when America cared little about the education of African-Americans, and discrimination was law and custom, The Bordentown School was an educational utopia. An incubator for black pride and intellect, it taught values, discipline, and life skills to generations of black children. This is the story of that remarkable school, as told by Bordentown alumni, historians, and remarkable archival footage. It is also the story of black education in America across three centuries...
Passing Glory
Character: Mommit Porter
A true story of a priest (Andre Braugher) in New Orleans who formed a group of black players and challenged an all-white prep school basketball team in the 1960's. Eventually events like these signaled the pivotal turn in the games' history leading to the integration in today's sport. Directed by Steve James (Hoop Dreams), these basketball players didn't just make shots, they made history....
The Wall
Character: Mrs. Mitchell (segment "The Badge")
The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a sheriff's badge, and an electric guitar. Each item connects the living with the dead and are left as either memorials or to heal the wounds of war....
Countdown at Kusini
Character: Leah Matanzima
An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa....
Whitewash
Character: Grandmother (voice)
When Helene Angel walks home from school with her older brother she is attacked by a street gang and painted white. The effect on Helene and her family is devastating. Helene locks herself in her room, her brother blames himself for not having successfully defended his sister, and the media descends on their neighborhood, completely disrupting her small family. But an outpouring of love and understanding from Helene's friends, classmates and family helps her face what has happened and draws the ...
Taking Back Our Town
Character: Emelda West
A true story about a concerned housewife, Pat Melancon, who tries to block Shintech, a massive Japanese petrochemical conglomerate, from building a plant in her toxic township already known as "cancer alley". Pat and a few newly recruited, fledgling activitsts face the full force of Shintech's wealth and influence peddling, which has bought the cooperation of the government from the local level all the way up to the Governor's office....
The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson
Character: Jackie's Mother
A film about the early life of the baseball star in the army, particulary his court-martial for insubordination regarding segragation....
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
Character: Annie Elizabeth 'Bessie' Delany
Tells the story of Sadie and Bessie Delany, two African-American (they preferred "colored") sisters who both lived past the age of 100. They grew up on a North Carolina college campus, the daughters of the first African-American Episcopal bishop, who was born a slave, and a woman with an inter-racial background. With the support of each other and their family, they survived encounters with racism and sexism in their own different ways. Sadie quietly and sweetly broke barriers to become the first...
No Way Out
Character: Connie Brooks (uncredited)
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder....
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story
Character: Indigo
James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excellent match is arranged with an American businessman, but when he takes his new wife Mary across the border his true character emerges - he sells her into slavery. James and Elizabeth must go to Virginia to rescue their daughter....
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Character: Self (archive footage)
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the documentary follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement. Rare footage of King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of other high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause, punctuated by heartfelt testimonials by some of Hollywood's biggest stars....
Love in Syncopation
Character:
Follows the band's rise in show business, starting with its origins in the Navy during World War II and their struggle to make it....
The Fight Never Ends
Character:
Joe Louis, portraying himself, is a good influence on a group of Harlem youths who are tempted to "go bad" by a gangster known as Caper, an older brother of one of the youths....
What a Guy
Character:
Mantan Moreland's comedy feature....
Wedding Band
Character: Julia Augustine
A drama which examines the enduring nature of love between a white man and a black woman in 1918 South Carolina....
The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
Character: Miss Candy
In this film, childhood friends come face to face with the demons of rock and roll (lust, drugs, and passion) on a cross-country road trip that compels them to face their past, present, and future. Rocker Spyder, whose debut album was a huge hit saw his follow-on album bomb, causing him to retreat to his small hometown and give up. Seven years later, 27-year-old Spyder reconnects with his long-lost best friend and writer of his debut album Eric, son of a late great punk rock guitar legend, who h...
In the Shadow of Hollywood: Race Movies and the Birth of Black Cinema
Character: Herself
This documentary captures the sounds and images of a nearly forgotten era in film history when African American filmmakers and studios created “race movies” exclusively for black audiences. The best of these films attempted to counter the demeaning stereotypes of black Americans prevalent in the popular culture of the day. About 500 films were produced, yet only about 100 still exist. Filmmaking pioneers like Oscar Micheaux, the Noble brothers, and Spencer Williams, Jr. left a lasting influence ...
All God's Children
Character: Irene Whitfield
Big city judge Parke Denison is involved in a forced busing dispute at the climax of his long career. The friendship between two families -- one white, one black -- and their sons, who are buddies, provides the microcosm of this major social issue that has been argued for several decades....
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Character: Mrs. Grimes
This film adaptation of James Baldwin's celebrated novel tells the journey of a family from the rural South to "big city" Harlem seeking both salvation and understanding and of a young boy struggling to earn the approval of a self-righteous and often unloving stepfather....
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
Character: Self
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks is a 2003 documentary about the life of Academy Award nominated actress Beah Richards. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, it won the Documentary Award at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival in 2003....
The Ernest Green Story
Character: Lydia Wilson
Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school....
A Thousand Words
Character: Annie McCall
Jack McCall is a fast-talking literary agent, who can close any deal, any time, any way. He has set his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja for his own selfish purposes. But Dr. Sinja is on to him, and Jack’s life comes unglued after a magical Bodhi tree mysteriously appears in his backyard. With every word Jack speaks, a leaf falls from the tree and he realizes that when the last leaf falls, both he and the tree are toast. Words have never failed Jack McCall, but now he’s got to stop talking and c...
Zora is My Name!
Character: Zora Neale Hurston
A celebration of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, who was born at the turn of the 20th Century and grew to be an important voice with her written portrayals of Black American life in the rural south of the 1930's and 40's, and the stories, songs and folklore that were her heritage and inspiration....
TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
Character: (archive footage)
Discover how television has reflected the African American experience in this retrospective of the medium's first half-century. Actors, writers and historians discuss the image of black America on television from Amos and Andy to the present day. The interviews accompany clips from groundbreaking shows and performances by entertainment pioneers that create a timeline of the portrayal of African Americans throughout TV history....
St. Louis Blues
Character: Elizabeth
Will Handy grows up in Memphis with his preacher father and his Aunt Hagar. His father intends for him to use his musical gifts only in church, but he can't stay away from the music of the streets and workers. After he writes a theme song for a local politician, Gogo, a speakeasy singer, convinces Will to be her accompanist. Will is estranged from his father for many years while he writes and publishes many blues songs. At last the family is reunited when Gogo brings them to New York to see Will...
The Balcony
Character: Thief
The Madam of a brothel satisfies the erotic fantasies of her customers, while a revolution is sweeping the nation. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010....
Theater Talk: 'A Raisin in the Sun'
Character: Self
Panel discussion about the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansbury's "A Raisin in the Sun."...
Color Adjustment
Character: Narrator
From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, black people have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving clips from classic TV shows with commentary from TV producers, black actors and scholars, Marlon Riggs blends humor, insight, and thoughtful analysis to explore the evolution of black/white relations as reflected by America's favorite addiction....
Go Man Go
Character: Irma Jackson
The story of Abe Saperstein and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters....
Discovering William Greaves
Character: Self
A documentary on the career of William Greaves, featuring Greaves, his wife and co-producer Louise Archambault, actor Ruby Dee, filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, and film scholar Scott MacDonald. Released within Criterion's Symbiopsychotaxiplasm set....
Baby Geniuses
Character: Margo
BabyCo is the world's leading manufacturer in baby products. However, what the public doesn't know, is that Drs Kinder and Heep, two of its most brilliant scientists, are tirelessly working in complete secrecy to crack the indecipherable code to 'baby talk': a highly sophisticated language, and the key to the secrets of the universe. Before long, problems arise when mischievous Sly, the smartest of the toddlers, escapes confinement, bent on uniting all babies to free those trapped in the laborat...
Poitier's Walter Lee
Character: Self (archive footage)
An interview with film scholar Mia Mask, co-editor of Poitier Revisited....
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
Character: Lorraine Hansberry and other assorted characters
A mosaic biopic on Lorraine Hansberry, based on the stage play combining her unpublished writings, letters, and diaries....
The Sheriff
Character: Sue Ann Lucas
A rape case opens racial divisions in a small town. A black sheriff and his white deputy investigate allegations that a wealthy white businessman raped a black college student....
Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
Character: Self
In this open-letter style documentary, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis' rich lives guide their grandson on his personal quest to master lasting love, conscious art, and undying activism....
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
Character: Self
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer, and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic champion of the rights of the poor working man, the disfranchised and people of color. He led a life in the vanguard of many movements, achieved international acclaim for his music and suffered tremendous personal sacrifice. His story is one of the great dramas of the 20th century, spanning an international canvas of social upheaval and ideological c...
The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six
Character:
In 1963 a group of young Black boys living in Harlem were involved in an incident that earned them the nickname "The Harlem Six." Intent on protecting and clearing the names of their sons, several mothers bonded together to make their story known. This work emerges as a powerful close up of police brutality, and of power dynamics of 1960's Harlem....
All About Us
Character: Ms. Ella
Two Hollywood filmmakers attempt to find Morgan Freeman in Mississippi and convince him to star in their next movie. When life gets in their way they soon discover what matters to them most....
Easy to Get
Character: Drugstore Girl
U.S. Army training film about avoiding venereal disease, intended primarily for Black servicemen....
Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
Character: Self
Louis Gossett Jr. takes viewers through a special documentary celebration of the groundbreaking achievements of African-American performers and their contributions to Hollywood filmmaking. Spectacular film clips, rare behind-the-scenes footage, archival photographs and fascinating interviews chronicle nearly a century of tribulation and triumph. Gazing at the outstanding range of African-American stars on today's movie screens, it is hard to imagine a time when there were no black leading men or...
The Stand
Character: Mother Abagail
After a deadly plague kills most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a maleficent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil....