Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was a film and theatre actress, singer, and dancer. She is one of the earliest African-American movie stars and the first woman of colour to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in Carmen Jones (1954).
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| Dorothy (right) Vivian (left) mother Ruby (upper left) and Geneva Williams |
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother, actress Ruby Dandridge, left her husband while she was pregnant, and as such Dorothy never knew her father. She later suffered at the hands of her mother's girlfriend, Geneva Williams, a disciplinarian with a cruel side.
Pushed into show business at a young age by her mother, Dandridge performed with her sister, Vivian, as a song-and-dance team called the Wonder Children. Around 1930, Dandridge moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family. A few years later she found success with her new musical group, the Dandridge Sisters, which included sister Vivian and their friend Etta Jones. The group landed gigs at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem and performed with top acts such as the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra and Cab Calloway.
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| Etta, Dorothy and Vivian |
As a teenager, Dandridge began earning small roles in a number of films. She and her sister appeared in the Marx Brothers classic A Day at the Races (1937), as well as Going Places (1938), with Louis Armstrong. On her own, she danced with Harold Nicholas of the dancing Nicholas Brothers in the 1941 Sonja Henie musical Sun Valley Serenade. The duo's tap-dancing routine was cut from the version of the film shown in the South.
Dandridge married Harold Nicholas in 1942, but their union proved to be anything but a happy one. Nicholas reportedly liked to chase other women, and Dandridge virtually retired from performing during this time. Adding to the strain, after Dandridge gave birth to daughter Harolyn in 1943, they discovered that the girl had brain damage. Seeking to find a cure, Dandridge had Harolyn receive expensive private care for many years.
After her divorce in 1951, Dandridge returned to the nightclub circuit, this time as a successful solo singer. After a stint at the Mocambo club in Hollywood with Desi Arnaz's band and a sellout 14-week engagement at La Vie en Rose, she became an international star, performing at glamorous venues in London, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco and New York. She won her first starring film role in 1953’s Bright Road, playing an earnest and dedicated young schoolteacher opposite Harry Belafonte.
Her next role, as the eponymous lead in Carmen Jones (1954), a film adaptation of Bizet's opera Carmen that also co-starred Belafonte, catapulted her to the heights of stardom. With her sultry looks and flirtatious style, Dandridge became the first African American to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Although she lost out to Grace Kelly (The Country Girl), Dandridge seemed well on her way to achieving the level of fame and superstardom enjoyed by white contemporaries like Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner. In 1955, she was featured on the cover of Life magazine and was treated like visiting royalty at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.
However, in the years that followed her success with Carmen Jones, Dandridge had trouble finding film roles that suited her talents. With Hollywood filmmakers unable to create a suitable role for the light-skinned Dandridge, they soon reverted to subtly prejudiced visions of interracial romance. She appeared in several poorly received racially and sexually charged dramas. She did appear in one more role worthy of her talents, opposite Sidney Poitier in the Academy Award-winning Porgy and Bess (1959).
While making Carmen Jones, Dandridge became involved in various affairs ending in her marriage to her second husband, Jack Denison, in 1959. Denison was abusive and mishandled her money, with Dandridge losing much of her savings to an investment in her husband's failed restaurant. They split in 1962.
As her film career and marriage floundered, Dandridge began drinking heavily and taking antidepressants. The threat of bankruptcy and nagging problems with the IRS forced her to resume her nightclub career, but she found only a fraction of her former success. Relegated to second-rate lounges and stage productions, Dandridge's financial situation grew increasingly worse. By 1963, she could no longer afford to pay for her daughter's 24-hour medical care, and Harolyn was placed in a state institution. Dandridge soon suffered a nervous breakdown.
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| Dorothy and Harolyn |
On September 8, 1965, Dandridge was found dead in her Hollywood home at age 42. Initially reported to be the result of an embolism, additional findings pointed to an overdose of an antidepressant. Dandridge had little more than $2 in her bank account at the time of her death.
Three decades later, her career enjoyed a kind of renaissance with an acclaimed 1997 biography by film historian Donald Bogle in addition to Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, a 1999 HBO film starring Halle Berry. Smooth Operator, a long-unreleased recording date from 1958 featuring the Oscar Peterson trio, was finally issued in 1999 as well. (Edited mainly from biography.com)