Ruby Dee

African-American stage, film, and TV luminary "Ruby Dee" was born in Cleveland, the daughter of a Pullman-porter father and schoolteacher mother. While growing up in Harlem, Dee developed an interest in the theater. In 1941, she began studying under "Morris Carnovsky" at the American Negro Theatre. While attending Hunter College, she made her first professional stage appearance in South Pacific (not the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, but a short-lived 1943 drama). On Broadway from 1946, Dee's first major success was as the title character in Anna Lucasta. In 1948, she married actor "Ossie Davis", with whom she has since appeared in everything from Shakespeare to TV margarine commercials. Though she and "Davis" were both uncredited in their joint film debut, 1950's "No Way Out", Dee achieved second billing in her next feature, "The Jackie Robinson Story" (1950). Among her favorite stage roles were... Full Biography