Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in New York City on March 1 1927. It was in 1936 that his family moved to his mother's native Jamaica. They lived there for five years. After moving back to New York City, he attended George Washington High School. During World War II he dropped out of school to enlist in the United States Navy.
Following his service, Harry Belafonte worked as a janitor's assistant. A tenant, whose apartment he had repaired, gave him two free tickets to the American Negro Theatre. He eventually joined the American Negro Theatre and played the lead in its production of the Sean O’Casey play Juno and the Paycock. He later studied acting at the Actors Studio and the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research. It was during this period that he became friends with fellow actor Sidney Poitier.
It was also during this period that Harry Belafonte began singing in clubs. He eventually signed with RCA Victor and his first single, a cover of "Gomen-nasai" was released in 1953. His first album, Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites, was released the following year. His second album, Belafonte, released in 1956, would be the first number one album on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. His third album, Calypso, also went number one on the chart. It proved phenomenally successfully, becoming the first album to sell over 1 million copies. It also triggered a calypso craze that overtook the United States in the mid to late Fifties. Harry Belafonte continued to have success on the Billboard album chart, recording in several other genres, until The Beatles and the British Invasion in 1964. His live album Belafonte at The Greek Theatre would be his last to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Pop Albums Chart. In total he recorded a total of 28 studio albums, the last being Paradise in Gazankulu in 1988. He also continued to perform live.
Harry Belafonte made his film debut in 1953 in Bright Road. The following year he appeared in the screen adaptation of Carmen Jones (1954). In the late Fifties he appeared in the movies Island in the Sun (1957), The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). He made his television debut in 1949 as a regular on the show Sugar Hill Times. In the Fifties he appeared on such variety shows, talk shows, and games shows as Cavalcade of Stars, The New Revue, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, America After Dark, The Nat King Cole, The Steve Allen Show, Person to Person, The Bell Telephone Hour, and What's My Line. He appeared on the anthology shows Front Row Center and General Electric Theatre. In 1960 he had his own television special, Belafonte, New York 19. He made his debut on Broadway in John Murray Abraham's Almanac in 1953. In the Fifties he also on Broadway in 3 for Tonight, Moonbirds, and Belafonte at the Palace.
In the Sixties Harry Belafonte appeared on such variety shows, talk shows, and game shows as The Perry Como Show, Talent Scouts, The Les Crane Show, The Bell Telephone Hour, The Danny Kaye Show, What's My Line, ABC Stage '67, Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and The David Frost Show. He made a famous appearance on Petula Clark's 1968 special Petula, He appeared in the movie The Angel Levine (1970).
In the Seventies Mr Belafonte appeared in the movies Buck and the Preacher (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). On television he appeared on The Diahann Carroll Special, The Lee Phillip Show, Soul!, Dick Cavett Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Julie Andrews Hour, The Flip Wilson Show, The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People, the TV special Free to Be...You and Me, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Muppet Show.
In the Eighties Harry Belafonte helped organize the song "We Are the World," a multi-artist charity single for African famine relief. On television he appeared in the TV movie Grambling's White Tiger. He appeared on Broadway in Asinamali!. In the Nineties he appeared in the movies The Player (1992), Prêt-à-Porter (1995), White Man's Burden (1995), and Kansas City (1995). On television he was a guest voice on the animated series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child and PB&J Otter, and appeared in the TV movie Swing Vote. In the Naughts he appeared in the movie Bobby (2005). He made his last movie appearance in BlacKkKlansman in 2018.
Harry Belafonte was an incredible talent. He possessed a powerful, yet elegant voice that made him one of the best singers of the era. It is little wonder that he sparked the calypso craze of the Fifties. Of course, while he was known as the King of Calypso, he performed in a variety of genres, including folk music, blues, gospel, and American standards. Few singers saw the success that Harry Belafonte did, with millions of records sold throughout his career.
He was not only a talented singer, but also a talented actor. He shined as Joe, the soldier who became involved with the title character in Carmen Jones. What might have been his best performance was in Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he played Johnny Ingram, a nightclub singer who becomes part of a heist because of his gambling debt. The film was produced by Harry Belafonte's company HarBel Productions. In Buck and the Preacher he played Willis Oaks Rutherford, a dodgy individual who claims to be the preacher of the title. In Uptown Saturday Night he played the temperamental gangster Dan "Geechie Dan" Beauford. In Kansas City he played another gangster, Seldom Seen, who made Geechie in Uptown Saturday Night look tame in comparison. Harry Belafonte played a variety of roles throughout his career, playing characters who were very different from each other. He always gave good performances.
Beyond being a talented actor and singer, Harry Belafonte was also a great activist and humanitarian. He was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and was even close friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1961 Mr. Belafonte supported the Freedom Rides and voter registration drives. He bailed Dr. King of out jail during the Birmingham Campaign in 1963, and raised an additional $50,000 to bail out other civil rights activists.In 1963 he helped organize the March on Washington. In 1964 he financed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He also served as a a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador with regards to juvenile justice issues. He also supported Amnesty International, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the American Indian Empowerment Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, and several other charities and activism groups. Harry Belafonte's mother told him, "Don’t ever let injustice go by unchallenged." Throughout his life, he lived her words.
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