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Harry Belafonte, the Jamaican-American singer, actor and activist, died on Tuesday at age 96.
His spokesperson told the New York Times that he died of congestive heart failure.
He was well known for his Jamaica-inspired songs Island in the Sun, Day-O, and Jamaica Farewell, among many others, and won a Tony Award for his stage acting, while also appearing in many films.
Harry Belafonte was born in 1927 in Harlem, New York, and spent eight years of his growing-up years in Jamaica, the birthplace of his parents.
Upon his return to the United States, he struggled in high school with dyslexia and dropped out in his early teens. He joined the US navy at age 17 in March 1944.
After the war ended, he worked as a janitor’s assistant, but had his sights set on becoming an actor, for which he prepared by taking acting lessons alongside later notables such as Marlon Brando and Walter Mathau. He was also a contemporary of Sidney Poitier, a fellow actor of Caribbean roots (Poitier being born in the US to Bahamian parents), with whom he later acted and joined the Civil Rights Movement.
He paid for his acting lessons by singing folk, pop and jazz songs.
His singing career flourished and he released his debut album in 1954, a collection of traditional folk songs. His second album, Belafonte, released in 1956, was the first No 1 in the new US Billboard album chart, but even more success was to come with his third album Calypso, released the following year, featuring songs from his Jamaican heritage. This became the first album to sell more than a million copies in the US.
Belafonte was also well known for his civil rights and political activism, advocating for the right of Black Americans and for left-wing political causes, including, controversially, his support for Fidel Castro and late in life, for the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
He helped lead the way for Black American support for the presidential candidacy of the Democrat, John F. Kennedy in 1960, endorsing the candidate in a joint appearance on screen.
SOURCE: The Guardian