Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte, born in 1927, American folk singer, actor, producer, and activist for civil rights and humanitarian causes. Born Harold George Belafonte in the Harlem section of New York City, he moved as a child with his mother to Jamaica, her native country. After five years in Jamaica, Belafonte returned to Harlem. He studied acting in the late 1940s at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research and later received a Tony Award for his appearance in John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953). Belafonte first gained attention as a singer during an extended engagement at Broadway's Royal Roost nightclub, where he began specializing in the music of the West Indies. His first great success was the 1956 album Calypso, which included “Banana Boat Song,” also known as “Day-O,” his most famous recording. “Banana Boat Song,” along with such songs as “Matilda” and “Brown Skin Girl,” sparked a surge of interest in calypso music. Belafonte's carefree folk songs appealed to a broad cross section of the American public. He was one of the first pop music artists to achieve such wide appeal. His other albums include the popular Belafonte At Carnegie Hall (1959) and Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall (1960), which featured the song “There's a Hole in My Bucket,” performed with the folk, jazz, and blues singer Odetta. Belafonte acted in several motion pictures, including Island in the Sun (1957), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), First Look (1984), and The Player (1992). He won an Emmy award for his 1960 television special Tonight with Belafonte, becoming the first black man to win the award.

Renowned as a humanitarian and activist, Belafonte helped organize the recording session for the album and video We Are the World, which supported African-famine-relief projects; he received a Grammy Award in 1985 for his efforts. In 1987 Belafonte was appointed a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador, and in 1988 the Peace Corps presented him with its Leader for Peace award. Belafonte's interest in the plight of Africans suffering under apartheid inspired his critically acclaimed album Paradise in Ganzankulu (1988). He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994.