63 Facts About Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and singer.

Dorothy Dandridge was the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Carmen Jones.

Dorothy Dandridge was the subject of the 1999 biographical film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, with Halle Berry portraying her.

Dorothy Dandridge had been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dorothy Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer Harold Nicholas and then to hotel owner Jack Denison.

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio to entertainer Ruby and Cyril Dandridge.

The Dorothy Dandridge Sisters continued strong for several years, and they were booked in several high-profile New York nightclubs, including the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.

Dorothy Dandridge first appeared on screen at the age of 13 in a small part in an Our Gang comedy short, "Teacher's Beau" in 1935.

Dorothy Dandridge's first credited film role was in Four Shall Die.

Dorothy Dandridge had small roles in Lady from Louisiana with John Wayne and Sundown with Gene Tierney, both in 1941.

Also that year, Dorothy Dandridge appeared as part of the specialty number "Chattanooga Choo Choo" in the hit 1941 musical Sun Valley Serenade for 20th Century Fox.

Dorothy Dandridge appeared occasionally in films and on the stage throughout the rest of the 1940s and performed as a band singer in films with Count Basie in Hit Parade of 1943 and Louis Armstrong, Atlantic City and Pillow to Post.

In 1944, Dorothy Dandridge was featured as the star in "Sweet 'N Hot", a musical held at the Mayan theatre in Los Angeles and produced by Leon Hefflin Sr.

In 1951, Dorothy Dandridge appeared as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba in Tarzan's Peril, starring Lex Barker and Virginia Huston.

The continuing publicity buzz surrounding Dorothy Dandridge's wardrobe got her featured on the April 1951 cover of Ebony.

In May 1951, Dorothy Dandridge had a spectacular opening at the Mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood, the biggest in its history.

The film, which centered on a teacher's struggles to reach a troubled student, marked the first time Dorothy Dandridge appeared in a film opposite Harry Belafonte.

Dorothy Dandridge continued her performances in nightclubs and appeared on multiple early television variety shows, including Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town.

In Dorothy Dandridge's leading role from the previous year, a school teacher in Bright Road, director and writer Otto Preminger could see no gift to portray the classic femme fatale in Carmen Jones but his consideration was that she would be suited for the smaller role, Cindy Lou.

Dorothy Dandridge, who had dressed down for the screen test of Bright Road to suit the demure teacher at its center, worked with Max Factor make-up artists to convey the look and character of the earthy Carmen, which she wore to a meeting with Preminger in his office.

On November 1,1954, Dorothy Dandridge became the first black woman featured on the cover of Life.

Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first African American nominated for a leading role.

At the 27th Academy Awards held on March 30,1955, Dorothy Dandridge was a nominee along with Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, and Jane Wyman.

At the 1955 Oscar ceremony, Dorothy Dandridge presented the Academy Award for Film Editing to On the Waterfront editor Gene Milford.

On February 15,1955, Dorothy Dandridge signed a three-movie deal with 20th Century Fox starting at $75,000 a film.

Dorothy Dandridge purchased the film rights to The Blue Angel and intended to cast her as saloon singer Lola-Lola in an all-black remake of the original 1930 film.

Dorothy Dandridge was scheduled to star as Cigarette in a remake of Under Two Flags.

Meanwhile, Dorothy Dandridge agreed to play the role of Tuptim in a film version of The King and I and a sultry upstairs neighbor in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts.

In 1957, Dorothy Dandridge sued Confidential for libel over its article that described a scandalous incident that it claimed occurred in 1950.

Dorothy Dandridge was one of two Hollywood stars who testified at the 1957 criminal libel trial of Hollywood Research, Inc.

Dorothy Dandridge had not testified during her civil lawsuit earlier in 1957, but in September she gave testimony in the criminal trial that further strengthened the prosecution's case.

In 1957, after a three-year absence from film acting, Dorothy Dandridge agreed to appear in the film Island in the Sun opposite an ensemble cast, including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, and Stephen Boyd.

Dorothy Dandridge portrayed a local West Indian shop clerk who has an interracial love affair with a white man, played by John Justin.

When Dorothy Dandridge threatened to leave the film, the script and her wardrobe were retooled to her liking.

In MGM's The Decks Ran Red, Dorothy Dandridge co-starred with James Mason, Broderick Crawford, and Stuart Whitman as Mahia, a cook's wife aboard a tired World War II surplus freighter enduring a mutiny.

Dorothy Dandridge's acceptance angered the black community, who felt the story's negative stereotyping of blacks was degrading.

In 1959, Dorothy Dandridge starred in the low-budget British thriller Malaga, in which she played a European woman with an Italian name.

Some pre-release publicity invited the belief that Dorothy Dandridge received her first, and only, on-screen kiss with a white actor in this film.

In 1962, Dorothy Dandridge was filmed with Alain Delon on the set of La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo, a Raoul Levy-produced French-Italian film that was abandoned due to financial issues.

Dorothy Dandridge appeared as Anita in a Highland Park Music Theater production of West Side Story, but she lasted only two performances due to illness.

On 31 March 1962, Dorothy Dandridge sang in the Le Paon Rouge nightclub of the Phoenicia Intercontinental as the guest of honor.

Dorothy Dandridge filed for bankruptcy and went into seclusion before appearing as a lounge act in Las Vegas in 1964.

Dorothy Dandridge signed a new contract in Mexico and was scheduled to appear as the female lead in a film about outlaw Johnny Ringo.

Dorothy Dandridge was a Democrat, and she supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.

Dorothy Dandridge filed for divorce in September 1950, and it was finalized in October 1951.

Dorothy Dandridge gave birth to her only child, Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas, on September 2,1943.

At first, Dorothy Dandridge refused to go to the hospital without him.

Dorothy Dandridge blamed herself for her daughter's condition, and for not getting to the hospital sooner.

Dorothy Dandridge was private about her daughter's condition; she didn't publicly speak about it until a 1963 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show.

Dorothy Dandridge demanded that she accept only starring roles after her success in his film.

Dorothy Dandridge became pregnant by him in 1955, but was forced to have an abortion by the studio.

Dorothy Dandridge ended the affair when she realized that Preminger had no plans to leave his wife to marry her.

Dorothy Dandridge discovered that the people who were handling her finances had swindled her out of $150,000, and she owed $139,000 in back taxes.

Dorothy Dandridge was forced to sell her Hollywood home and place her daughter in a California state mental institution, Camarillo State Hospital.

Dorothy Dandridge moved into a small apartment on Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood, California.

Dorothy Dandridge was scheduled to fly to New York City the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East.

Several hours later, Dorothy Dandridge was found unresponsive in her apartment by Mills after he had finally broken in the apartment door using the tire iron from his car.

On September 12,1965, a private funeral service was held at the Little Chapel of the Flowers; Dorothy Dandridge was cremated and her ashes interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

In 1997 a tribute to Dorothy Dandridge was aired on the talk show Charlie Rose, featuring biographer Donald Bogle and actors Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson, who acknowledge Dorothy Dandridge's contribution to the image of African Americans in American motion pictures.

Dorothy Dandridge was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 1984.

Dorothy Dandridge is featured as the most prominent figure in a mural on an exterior wall of Hollywood High School.

Dorothy Dandridge is an up-and-coming actress during the Hollywood Golden Age in the post-World War II era, a character largely inspired by and based on Dandridge.

Dorothy Dandridge first gained fame as a solo artist from her performances in nightclubs, usually accompanied by Phil Moore on piano.