1. Ossie Davis was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death.
39 Facts About Ossie Davis
2.
Ossie Davis received numerous accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy and a Writers Guild of America Award as well as nominations for four additional Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award.
3.
Ossie Davis started his career in theatre acting with the Ross McClendon Players in the 1940s.
4.
Ossie Davis made his Broadway debut acting in the post-World War II play Jeb.
5.
Ossie Davis earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination for his role in Jamaica.
6.
Ossie Davis wrote and starred as the title character in the satirical farce Purlie Victorious which was adapted into a 1963 film and 1970 musical.
7.
Ossie Davis was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Scalphunters.
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Ruby Dee Essie Davis Rose McClendon Sidney Poitier Stepin Fetchit Alan Alda Shelley Winters Burt Lancaster Malcolm X Burt Reynolds Tommy Lee Jones Susan Sarandon Walter Matthau John Grisham Jack Lemmon Spike Lee Stephen King Laurence Fishburne Alfre Woodard James Gandolfini Jack Nicholson Hume Cronyn Martin Luther Betty Shabazz 8.
Ossie Davis acted in The Hill, A Man Called Adam, Lets Do It Again, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Grumpy Old Men, The Client, and Dr Dolittle.
9.
Ossie Davis was Emmy-nominated for his roles in Teacher, Teacher, Miss Evers' Boys, and The L Word.
10.
Ossie Davis won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album with his wife Ruby Dee for Ossie and Ruby.
11.
Raiford Chatman Ossie Davis was born in Cogdell, Georgia, the son of Kince Charles Ossie Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura.
12.
Ossie Davis's siblings included scientist William Conan Davis, social worker Essie Davis Morgan, pharmacist Kenneth Curtis Davis, and biology teacher James Davis.
13.
Ossie Davis's acting career began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem.
14.
Ossie Davis made his film debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out.
15.
When Ossie Davis wanted to pursue a career in acting, he ran into the usual roadblocks that black people suffered at that time as they generally could only portray stereotypical characters such as Stepin Fetchit.
17.
Ossie Davis acted in the musical drama A Man Called Adam, performing alongside Sammy Davis Jr.
18.
Ossie Davis played Joseph Lee in the Sydney Pollack-directed western drama The Scalphunters, acting alongside Burt Lancaster and Shelley Winters.
19.
Ossie Davis starred with Cosby and Poitier in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again.
20.
Ossie Davis never had the tremendous commercial or critical success that either of them enjoyed.
21.
In 1976, Ossie Davis appeared on Muhammad Ali's novelty album for children, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs Mr Tooth Decay.
22.
Ossie Davis found recognition late in his life by working in several of director Spike Lee's films, including School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Get on the Bus, and She Hate Me For the final moments of Malcolm X, Ossie Davis, in voiceover, recited the actual eulogy that he wrote and delivered at Malcolm's funeral 27 years earlier.
23.
Ossie Davis found work as a commercial voice-over artist and served as the narrator of the early-1990s CBS sitcom Evening Shade, starring Burt Reynolds, where he played one of the residents of a small southern town.
24.
Ossie Davis appeared in several popular 1990s films, including the studio comedies Grumpy Old Men starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and Cop and a Half with Burt Reynolds, as well as the John Grisham drama film The Client starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.
25.
Ossie Davis reunited with Spike Lee acting in the film Get on the Bus and appeared his HBO documentary 4 Little Girls which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
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Ruby Dee Essie Davis Rose McClendon Sidney Poitier Stepin Fetchit Alan Alda Shelley Winters Burt Lancaster Malcolm X Burt Reynolds Tommy Lee Jones Susan Sarandon Walter Matthau John Grisham Jack Lemmon Spike Lee Stephen King Laurence Fishburne Alfre Woodard James Gandolfini Jack Nicholson Hume Cronyn Martin Luther Betty Shabazz 26.
In 1994, Ossie Davis played Judge Richard Farris in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand.
27.
Ossie Davis played Erasmus Jones in Promised Land from 1996 to 1998.
28.
Ossie Davis played Mr Evers in the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys starring Laurence Fishburne and Alfre Woodard.
29.
Ossie Davis acted in an ensemble cast acting alongside Courtney B Vance, George C Scott, James Gandolfini, Jack Nicholson, and Hume Cronyn.
30.
Ossie Davis voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street in its animation segments.
31.
Ossie Davis narrated the HBO Storybook Musicals adaptation of The Red Shoes aired on February 7,1990.
32.
Ossie Davis took roles in Deacons for Defense and JAG, both in 2003.
33.
Ossie Davis's last role was a several episode guest role on the Showtime drama series The L Word, as a father struggling with the acceptance of his daughter Bette parenting a child with her lesbian partner.
34.
In 1948, Ossie Davis married actress Ruby Dee, whom he had met on the set of Robert Ardrey's 1946 play Jeb.
35.
Ossie Davis delivered a stirring tribute to Dr Martin Luther King Jr, at a memorial in New York's Central Park the day after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
36.
Ossie Davis was found dead in a Miami Beach hotel room on February 4,2005.
37.
Ossie Davis's funeral was held in New York City on February 12,2005.
38.
Shabazz, oldest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, spoke lovingly of the man she and her five sisters called Uncle Ossie Davis, saying he had provided exceptional support to her and her sisters after her father's assassination.
39.
In 1994, Ossie Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.