THE ACTIVIST (REMEMBERING HARRY BELAFONTE)

Singer, songwriter, actor and rights activist, New York born Harry Belafonte was more than just a versatile entertainer.

He was a leader and role model for civil rights and humanitarian activists around the world and was admired for taking strong positions on race relations, Apartheid, poverty, education and health issues.

As a singer, he dabbled in folk music, calypso, gospel music, African, Jewish and Irish music, the blues and showtunes.

But he also helped raise awareness of other talented artists from across the world.

As an actor, he would work on Broadway and on movies even in his nineties, rubbing shoulders over the years with the likes of Otto Preminger, James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Robert Wise, Sidney Poitier, John Travolta, Robert Altman, Emilio Estevez and Spike Lee.

Born in Harlem in 1927, his parents hailed from Jamaica and were of Scottish and Dutch Jewish ancestry.

For a while, Harry was raised from the age of five by his grandmother in Jamaica,  returning to New York when he was 13 and getting a high school education.

Belafonte served in the Navy during the Second World War and initially found work as an assistant janitor in New York when he was given complimentary tickets to see The American Negro Theater.

Seduced by acting, he soon made friends with Sidney Poitier who was also under its spell and between them, they would make regular visits to the theatre.

However they were so poor, they would often purchase a single ticket and trade places between acts - filling in the gaps for one another on the plot.

At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte started acting in the American Negro Theatre, while taking classes in the Dramatic Workshop of the New School in New York under the celebrated German director Erwin Piscator.

Poitier joined him, while Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Bea Arthur and Walter Matthau also studied there.

A role in 'John Murray Anderson's Almanac' on Broadway landed him a Tony nomination and marked him out as an emerging talent.

Harry also earned a living as a club singer which helped fund his acting classes and his debut performance was with the Charlie Parker Band which included Miles Davis.

His velvet voice inevitably netted him a recording contract, with his first popular music recordings on the Roost label in 1949.

However Belafonte developed an interest in folk music and he acquired a lot of material by learning songs from the Library of Congress's folk song archives.

By this stage, he had married Marguerite Byrd in 1948, who would give birth to his two daughters - Adrienne and Shari.

Adrienne would later establish the Anir Foundation, a humanitarian organisation working in southern Africa with her daughter Rachel Blue, while Shari would build a career as a photographer, model, singer and actress, marrying the actor Sam Behrens.

Working with the guitarist Millard Thomas, Belafonte started to gig at The Village Vanguard jazz club and landed a contract in 1953 with RCA Victor - the label he would do much of his work for the next 21 years.

At RCA Victor, Harry would score a major hit with the song 'Matilda' and three years later, the album 'Calypso' would rack up sales of over one million copies and mirror that success in the UK. 

Having spent 31 weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard charts, it introduced Carribbean calypso music to mainstream audiences around the world and featured 'The Banana Boat Song' - a top five hit which would later feature memorably in Tim Burton's 1988 supernatural hit comedy film 'Beetlejuice' with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara and Alec Baldwin along with his other big hit, 'Jump in the Line'.

Belafonte scored another hit with the comic track 'Mama Look At Boo Boo' about a hapless dad unable to control his unruly and disrespectful children.

Success enabled Harry and his family to move from the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan to the more affluent and mostly white district of Elmhurst in Queens.

In 1953, Harry made his first appearance on the big screen as a school principal in Gerald Mayer's 'Bright Road' alongside Dorothy Dandridge but it was a commercial flop that was accused of taking too timid an approach to race relations.

Dandridge would co-star with him in Otto Preminger's acclaimed musical 'Carmen Jones', cementing his popularity with mainstream audiences as Corporal Joe - although his singing was dubbed with the voice of LeVern Hutchinson.

The film won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical and a Bronze Bear at the Berlin Film Festival but it divided critics - with some applauding Preminger for promoting African American talent and others describing the movie as risible.

His next film Robert Rossen's 1957 drama 'Island In The Sun' was a star studded affair with James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins and Stephen Boyd among the cast and spawned a hit single of the same name penned by Belafonte.

But it also broke new ground, with Belafonte's young politician sharing an onscreen kiss with Fontaine's wealthy character.

The furore of the first interracial movie kiss saw Fontaine receive death threats from white supremacists and while the film was a modest success, it received mixed reviews.

An affair with Joan Collins during the making of the film would also result in the collapse of his marriage to Marguerite.

However he would marry again in 1957, wedding former dancer Julie Robinson with whom he would have two children - David and Gina.

David would become a model, actor and Grammy and Emmy award winning music producer, as well as the executive director of Belfafonte Enterprises Inc.

He would also marry model and singer, Malena Belfafonte.

Gina would pursue a career as a film and television actress before helping found Gathering for Justice, a not for profit organisation with the aim of promoting non violence in a bid to prevent child incarceration.

Such was Harry's popularity as a popular entertainer in the fifties, after a successful appearance in 1958 on 'The Steve Allen Show', he was given his own TV special.

'Tonight with Belafonte' featured another fan favourite, a duet with Odetta of 'There's A Hole In The Bucket' which charted two years later.

In 1959, he became the first Jamaican American to capture an Emmy for the show 'Revelon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte' and he would achieve more commercial and critical success with two live albums recorded at New York's Carnegie Hall, featuring the Jewish celebratory folk song 'Hava Nagila' which became a popular song on his setlist.

In 1959 Belafonte dabbled in science fiction, as a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world in Randal McDougall's thriller 'The World, The Flesh and The Devil' with Mel Ferrer and Inger Stevens which he co-produced.

However it stuttered at the box office.

He earned some of his best notices also that year for Robert Wise's neo noir 'Odds Against Tomorrow' as a nightclub entertainer and gambling addict mired in debt, co-starring with Ed Begley, Shelley Winters and Robert Ryan.

Firmly established as a popular American artist, he was approached by Frank Sinatra to perform at President John F Kennedy's inaugural ball in 1961 and would later that year release another million selling calypso album, 'Jump Up Calypso'.

By this stage, Harry had started to use his celebrity for political clout and he would remain a formidable campaigner for much of his career.

Inspired by the singer, actor and Communist activist Paul Robeson, Belafonte was a prominent supporter of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King's civil rights campaign and an outspoken critic of not just racism in the US but Western colonialism in Africa.

His activism angered some people, especially in the Deep South, who disapproved of left wing leanings and he refused to perform there between 1954-61 in protest at the treatment of African Americans.

In 1960, Belafonte appeared in a campaign commercial for John F Kennedy's White House bid and he was later named by the young President as a cultural adviser to the Peace Corps.

Harry used his clout to promote international artists who caught his eye and nurture up and coming talent - introducing the South African and Greek singers, Miriam Makeba and Nana Mouskouri to the world and even featuring Bob Dylan on harmonica in his 1962 album 'Midnight Special'. 

As America underwent tumultuous social and political change during the 1960s which also altered musical tastes, Belafonte's mainstream appeal started to wane as The Beatles, The Beachboys, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel rose to prominence and dominated the popular music industry.

'Belafonte at the Greek Theatre' was his last LP to make the Billboard Top 40 but he continued to break new ground and win Grammy awards for socially conscious albums like 1960's 'Swing That Hammer' and 'An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba' in 1965 which raised the struggle of black South Africans under apartheid long before many other Western entertainers took up the cause.

Despite being elbowed out of the charts, Harry remained a popular entertainer - regularly appearing as a guest on TV specials during the 1960s fronted by Julie Andrews, Petula Clark, Lena Horne and Nana Mouskouri.

Now a close confidante of the Rev Dr King, he was prominent at many civil rights protests and supported the preacher and his family financially as well as financing the 1961 Freedom Rules voter registration drives and helping organise the 1963 march on Washington.

Like other civil rights activists, Belafonte was blacklisted during the McCarthy era but that did not deter him and he remained a steadfast supporter of the Rev Dr King, bailing him out of Birmingham city jail during the Alabama campaign of 1963.

A year later, during the Mississippi Freedom Summer, he again dug deep into his pockets to support the Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee and flew there with Sidney Poitier to publicly support their campaign in Greenwood.

In 1967, Belafonte broke more ground by becoming the first non-classical music performer to front a show at the Saratoga Performing Arts Centre in upstate New York - paving the way for The Doors, The Who and Janis Joplin.

A year later, NBC asked him to stand in for talk show host Johnny Carson on 'The Tonight Show' for a week and his guests included the Rev Dr King and Senator Bobby Kennedy.

Also that year, while appearing on an NBC special with Petula Clark, there was controversy when the advertising manager of the show's sponsor Plymouth Motors objected during the recording to the English singer smiling during her duet with Harry and touching Harry's arm.

Clark refused to bow to the sponsor's demand that the segment be re-taped, warning the show would air as recorded or not be broadcast at all. The executive was fired and the resulting controversy led to high audience ratings. 

An appearance on 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' also caused controversy when CBS deleted his 'Mardi Gras' segment which was intercut with images of rioting from the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The sequence would eventually be broadcast in 1993 as part of a complete syndication package for the 'Smothers Brothers Hour'.

In 1970, two years after the assassination of the Rev Dr King in Memphis, he joined Ruby Dee, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, James Earl Jones, Charlton Heston, Anthony Quinn, Ben Gazzara,  Burt Lancaster and Clarence Williams III as a guest narrator on Sidney Lumet's documentary 'King - A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis' which focused on the icon's non-violent civil rights campaign.

The Hungarian-born Slovak director Jan Kadar cast him as a man claiming to be a guardian angel in the critically panned drama 'The Angel Levine' in which Zero Mostel co-starred as a tailor who has lost his faith in Judaism.

A fifth and final calypso album 'Calypso Carnival' was released by RCA in 1971 and during the 1970s and 80s, he spent the bulk of his time on tour instead of recording, playing venues in North America, Europe, Japan and even Cuba.

In 1972, he would star in the first of two films directed by his old pal, Sidney Poitier.

'Buck and the Preacher' saw Belafonte as an outlaw, claiming to be a Preacher in the Western which also starred Poitier and Ruby Dee but it failed to ignite the box office or critics.

Two years later, Poitier coaxed him back into the role of a short tempered gangster in the hit crime comedy 'Uptown Saturday Night' with Poitier, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

While making the occasional contribution to documentaries, Belafonte would not, however, return to cinema screen acting for 18 years and focused instead on singing and political activism. 

Signed to Columbia, in 1977 he recorded a world music album 'Turn the World Around' and landed one year later a memorable appearance on 'The Muppet Show', featuring 'The Banana Boat Song' and the title track from the new album which he performed alongside specially made Muppets in African masks. 

It would become Jim Henson's favourite episode and in 1990, Harry was asked to perform it at the Muppets creator's memorial service.

In 1981, he was cast as the Grambling College football coach Eddie Robinson in the NBC TV movie 'Grambling's White Tiger' with Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) playing the first white quarterback in a team that was historically African American.

A critic of US foreign policy, he was critical during the 1980s of successive White House administrations' embargo of Cuba, the invasion of Grenada during President Reagan's tenure and also courted controversy with his praise for the left wing Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and the Rosenburgs who were executed for being Soviet spies in 1953.

Following the success of Band Aid in Europe, Belafonte became involved in the star studded American equivalent, USA for Africa's 'We Are The World' in 1985 and the subsequent Live Aid concert.

This rekindled a return to the recording studio for EMI and his interest in global humanitarian issues.

His first album of original material in a decade, 'Paradise in Gazankulu' focused on Apartheid in South Africa with ten protest songs.

Active for a long time in the anti-Apartheid movement, he introduced Sting as the opening act in the 70th birthday Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert in London's Wembley Stadium in 1988 that demanded the African National Congress leader's release.

He would have a key role in co-ordinating Mandela's first visit to the US in 1990 following his release, which saw the South African leader sweep through 12 cities.

Later he would help the American Committee on Africa fete ANC president Oliver Tambo at a reception in Roosevelt House in New York's Hunter College.  

A goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Harry campaigned on child survival in Dakar and Senegal and development issues in southern African nations including Zimbabwe.

Belafonte also used his celebrity status to stage the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa to raise funds for child survival, featuring 20 artists.

1989 saw Harry receive a Kennedy Centre honour and five years later, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in the United States.

He turned his attention to Rwanda in 1994, travelling there and raising awareness of the plight of children in the country impacted by genocide.

There was a cameo appearance as himself in Robert Altmann's star studded 1992 Hollywood satire 'The Player' with Tim Robbins, Greta Scaachi, Peter Gallagher and Fred Ward.

Belafonte would work with Altman three times again, appearing in the star studded 1994 fashion industry satire 'Pret A Porter' with Marcello Matroianni, Sophia Loren, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Tracey Ullman, Stephen Rea and Forest Whittaker.

Two years later, he would play a gangster called Seldom Seen in Altman's jazz age crime drama 'Kansas City' with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Steve Buscemi and Michael Murphy which drew mixed to positive reviews and failed to find a mass audience.

In 2004, he appeared in Altman and Garry Trudeau's four-part HBO political satire 'Tanner on Tanner' - a sequel to 'Tanner 88' - with Michael Murphy as a failed Presidential candidate and Cynthia Nixon as his filmmaker daughter.

Harry became a prominent campaigner on prostate cancer, after he was diagnosed in 1996, receiving successful treatment.

In 1997, Island Records broke a recording hiatus by him with a soundtrack and video of a televised concert 'An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends'.

In 1999, he was instrumental in securing Cuban leader Fidel Castro's approval for hip hop to have a role in the country's culture. 

On a return visit to Havana, Belafonte received the gratitude of the Cuban rap community who noted as a result of his advocacy, the Cuban Government had set up its own division to promote hip hop and construct a studio for artists.

That year he also appeared opposite Andy Garcia, Robert Prosky and Milo O'Shea in David Aspaugh's critically lambasted Supreme Court TV movie 'Swing Vote'. 

In 2000, the Grammys recognised his huge contribution to American and world music with a lifetime achievement award.

On September 11, 2001, while promoting a Grammy nominated multi-artist project 'The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music', Belafonte was interviewed by Katie Couric on NBC's 'Today' show just minutes before news broke of the first plane hitting New York's World Trade Center.

Constantly touring from the 1950s to the early 2000s, ill health forced him to reluctantly cancel a tour of Europe in the summer of 2003 with Nana Mouskouri.

After his final concert benefitting the Atlanta Opera in October 2003, Belafonte was forced to announce four years later he had retired from live performance.

2001 saw Belafonte take up the cause of campaigning to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and a year later he was awarded the Bishop John T Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his work on a range of issues to improve life on the continent of Africa. 

Harry travelled to Kenya in 2004 to promote the need for children to be educated there.

In 2002, he publicly criticised President George W Bush's administration over the invasion and occupation of Iraq but it was reference on a San Diego radio station interview to a Malcolm X quote that generated a lot of heat.

Belafonte compared US Secretary of State Colin Powell to a slave summoned to his master's house to do his bidding in the knowledge that he would be put out to pasture should he question Bush's judgment.

The comments were criticised by Powell and Condoleeza Rice.

In 2006, Belafonte would court further controversy when he described President Bush as the world's biggest tyrant during a meeting with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez where he was joined by the actor Danny Glover and the activist Cornel West.

The then Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton was so disapproving of the comment, she refused to acknowledge his presence at the AARP awards which honoured them both.

In 2016, he would endorse Senator Bernie Sanders' bid against Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic Party nomination for the White House.

Another speech at Duke University on Martin Luther King Jr Day asking what was the difference between the actions of the Bush administration in Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers also whipped up a storm of indignation, although he later admitted his remarks may have been hasty.

In 2003, after 47 years of marriage to Julie Robinson, Belafonte separated and divorced her.

Four years later, he married a third time, taking the photographer Pamela Frank as his bride.

At the 2006 BET awards, Belafonte was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award and he was one of nine Impact Award winners honoured by 'AARP: The Magazine'.

In 2006, Spike Lee featured him among the interviews in the HBO documentary 'When the Leeves Broke' about the devastation in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

That year Emilio Estevez directed him as Anthony Hopkins' chess partner and friend in the well received movie 'Bobby' which recreated the events around the 1968 assassination in Los Angeles of Bobby Kennedy, with a cast that also comprised of Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt, Sharon Stone, Martin Sheen, Shia LaBeouf, Elijah Wood, Demi Moore, Christian Slater and Estevez.

A year later, he delivered the keynote speech at the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union's annual Bill of Rights Day celebration and received the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award.

Belafonte that year also appeared on a Norwegian telethon as a UNICEF ambassador in a drive which netted $10 per citizen for the charity.

He would be appointed as an ambassador for the Bahamas and to the boards of the Trans Africa Forum, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Advancement Project and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

In 2011, a documentary film 'Sing Your Song' by Susanne Rostock premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to acclaim, focusing on his career as an entertainer and an activist.

Belafonte's memoir 'My Song' was also published that year.

As outspoken as ever, he was not afraid to criticise Barack Obama's adminstration for allowing popular opinion to shape its policies but he was also critical of Congressional Republicans for resisting the President's policies after his re-election.

In recognition of his career as an activist, Harry was inducted in 2013 as an honoree for the Martin Luther King Celebration Series at the Rhode Island School of Design and the LGBT community made him the Grand Marshall of their Pride parade. 

In 2017, an anthology of his best loved recordings 'When Colours Came Together' was released including an updated version of his hit 'Island In The Sun' featuring his grandchildren.

Belafonte was made the honorary co-chair of the Women's March in Washington, which took place a day after President Donald Trump assumed office. 

In a clever piece of casting in 2018, Spike Lee directed him in the Oscar winning movie 'Blackkklansman' with David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Alec Baldwin and Topher Grace,  in which he played Jerome Turner, a veteran anti racism campaigner who tells a Union of Black Students meeting in Colorado a chilling tale about a lynching.

One of his last public appearances was at a 93rd birthday concert in 2020 in his honour at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem which served as a demonstration of the esteem with which he was held among later generations of entertainers.

The line up included Usher, Sheila E, Common, Gael Faye, Yemen Blues a f the Resistance Revival Choir.

Belafonte was smooth singer but he used his voice and fame impressively to help others.

Few entertainers before or since have shown the same commitment to the rights of others in the US and around the world.

That activist voice will be sorely missed.

(Harry Belafonte passed away at the age of 96 on April 25, 2023)