Dorothy Dandridge

She was born in Cleveland Ohio’s City Hospital on November 9, 1922. Her mother, Ruby Dandridge, wanted to be an actress and shared her love of performing with Dorothy and her sister Vivian. Dorothy and Vivian started performing for small audiences, but her mother had bigger dreams for them. Ruby brought Dorothy and her sisters to Nashville, Tennessee. They toured the south and performed in Baptist churches. They called themselves The Wonder Children. Then they moved to Hollywood. A third girl joined the act and they became The Dandridge Sisters. They got some small parts in movies and in 1948 they performed in The Cotton Club in New York City. Then back in Hollywood the group split up and Dorothy worked on her career. On September 6, 1942, she married Harold Nicholas, a performer with The Nicholas Brothers. They had a daughter, Harolyn on September 2, 1943. The couple was divorced in 1949 and Dorothy returned to her career working in night clubs. Dorothy experiences racism, she was not allowed to mingle with the customers, swim in the hotel pools, use hotel elevators or even bath rooms. Her act was good enough to get attention in Hollywood. She got parts in Tarzan's Peril and in The Harlem Globetrotters in 1951 and in Bright Road in 1953. Carmen Jones, which came out in 1954, was a huge success. Dorothy was on the cover of Life Magazine and she became the first African American woman to be nominated for Best Actress! In 1959 she won a Golden Globe for her performance in Porgy and Bess with Sydney Poitier. After another marriage ended in divorce Dorothy lost all her money, she started to drink and was taking antidepressants. Sadly, Dorothy died on September 8, 1965.

Dorothy knew it was hard, almost impossible, for a black actress to have a career in Hollywood because there were no parts. She once said," If I were white, I could capture the world." She was a beautiful actress and singer whose life ended too soon.

In 2002, Halle Berry became the first African-American to win a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Monsters Ball.