Actor, singer and activist Harry Belafonte dies at age 96 wbszfm.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wbszfm.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Famed actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan at the age of 96. Belafonte's longtime representative, Ken Sunshine, confirmed in a press release that Belafonte died Tuesday morning "of congestive heart failure at his New York home at the age of 96, his wife Pamela [Frank] by his side." The Jamaican-American Belafonte rose to prominence as an entertainer in the 1950s, appearing in films like Carmen Jones (1954), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), and The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959). Belafonte made acting history twice: he was the first black man to win a Tony (in 1954 for 'Almanac') and the first to win an Emmy (in 1959 for 'An Evening with Belafonte'). His successful music career which skyrocketed with the release of the 1955 album Belafonte. Known as the 'King of Calypso', Belafonte brought Caribbean music to a global audience with his 1956 breakthrough album, Calypso, featuring the
Harry Belafonte, the actor and singer who made calypso music a phenomenon and used his stardom to draw attention to civil rights issues and injustice around the world, has died.