Hollywood lost an icon when stage and screen legend Ruby Dee died on this day in 2014. Dee was at her home in New Rochelle, New York and surrounded by loved ones when she passed. She was 91 years old.
The Cleveland-born, New York-raised actress and activist — winner of an Emmy, a Grammy and a Screen Actors Guild award, among others — was an icon on Broadway, cinema and television. With her husband and collaborator Ossie Davis, she was also a major figure in the Civil Rights movement.
Dee’s first film role came in 1949, in the musical drama That Man of Mine. She worked frequently with Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever) and earned an Academy Award nomination in 2007 for Best Supporting Actress for American Gangster.
She appeared in the 1979 TV movie Roots: The Next Generation, and costarred with husband Ossie Davis in their own short-lived show, Ossie and Ruby! in 1980.
Her final film was the still-in-production crime drama King Dog, opposite Ice-T.
Rest in Peace Rudy! I'm sure that Ossie was waiting for her at the pearly gates!
