Profile via TMDB · Courtesy of TMDB
Ossie Davis
Sign in to saveAlso known as Raiford Chatman Davis, Ossie
American actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist (1917-2005)
OverviewAI-generated
Ossie Davis (1917–2005) was an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and stage actor. Born in Cogdell, Georgia, he was a citizen of the United States and spoke English and French. He was educated at Howard University and Columbia University School of General Studies. His professional career began in 1950. He resided in New York City and Waycross.
Davis was married to Ruby Dee, and they had a child named Guy Davis. He received the National Medal of Arts, Daytime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and Kennedy Center Honors. He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, a Tony Award for Best Musical, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
His notable works include On trial, Maggie's American Dream, With Ossie and Ruby, Purlie, and Arthur Ashe. He died of natural causes in Miami.
Synthesized by Vinony from 44 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Crossref, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 18 December 1917
- Died
- 04 February 2005
- Works
- 16
Top works
- On trial
- Maggie's American Dream
- With Ossie and Ruby
- Purlie
- Arthur Ashe
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Cogdell, Georgia, USA
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He may be best known for his roles in Spike Lee-directed films such as School Daze (1988) and Do the Right Thing (1989). Other films Davis acted in include The Hill (1965), A Man Called Adam (1966), Let's Do It Again (1975), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Grumpy Old Men…
Known for
- Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues — Self (archive footage)2022
- Folk Britannia — Self (archival footage)2006
- The Peace! — Self2005
- By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X' — Self2005
- Unstoppable — Self2005
- Deacons for Defense — Reverend 'Rev' Gregory2005
- The History Makers: Success — Self2005
- Baadasssss! — Granddad2004
- Beah: A Black Woman Speaks — Self2004
- Proud — Lorenzo DuFau2004
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- United States
- Active from
- 1917
- Active to
- 2005
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1,206
- Total plays
- 2,681
Tags
Ossie Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist. Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia. The name Ossie came from a county clerk who misheard his mother's pronunciation of his initials "R.C." when he was born.[1] Following the wishes of his parents, he attended Howard University but dropped out in 1939 to pursue his acting career in New York; he later attended Columbia Univers
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- STAR: ultrafast universal RNA-seq aligner
· 2012 · cited 51,083x
- Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology
· 1989 · cited 45,525x
- <tt>edgeR</tt>
: a Bioconductor package for differential expression analysis of digital gene expression data
· 2009 · cited 39,702x
- Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,910x
- User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward A Unified View1
· 2003 · cited 31,120x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Performing artists are less political today than they were years ago because they're not called on to be political”
- “We have freedom. What we don't have is equality!”
- “They knew what to say because it fell into the existing rhetoric”
- “The struggle and the arts are connected almost by definition”
- “I had a sense of certainty that no matter how dark it is now, one of these days it'll change.”
- “Optimism is small and personal”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- Raiford Chatman Davis , ( 1917-12-18 ) December 18, 1917, Cogdell, Georgia , U.S.
- Died
- February 4, 2005 (2005-02-04) (aged 87), Miami Beach , Florida , U.S.
- Education
- Columbia University
- Occupations
- Actor director poet playwright author activist
- Years active
- 1939–2005
- Spouse
- Ruby Dee ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1948 )
- Children
- 3, including Guy Davis
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Family name
- Davis
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Cogdell
- Place of death
- Miami
- Spouse
- Ruby Dee
- Child
- Guy Davis
- Occupation
- playwright
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Image
- Ossie Davis.jpg
- Residence
- Waycross
Show 11 more facts
- Commons category
- Ossie Davis
- date of birth
- 1917-12-18
- date of death
- 2005-02-04
- ethnic group
- African Americans
- manner of death
- natural causes
- related category
- Category:Films directed by Ossie Davis
- start of work period
- 1950-00-00
- writing language
- English language
- place of burial
- Ferncliff Cemetery
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Ossie Davis (born Raiford Chatman Davis; December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, from 1948 until his death. He 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. Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1995, then Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Davis started his career in theatre acting with the Ross McClendon Players in the 1940s. He made his Broadway debut acting in the post-World War II play Jeb (1946). He earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination for his role in Jamaica (1958). He wrote and starred as the title character in the satirical farce Purlie Victorious (1961) which was adapted into a 1963 film and 1970 musical.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ossie Davis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.