OUR Harry Belafontesinger, songwriter and innovative actor who began his artistic career in 1950sbefore moving on to politics died at age 96.

One day he announced that he was in constant state of inner rebellion who was driven by his anger.

As a black innovator, he was ahead of his time and explored as another art pioneer, racial issues in the films of the 1950s, a difficult time for these issues in the US.

He then collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr.during the early black civil rights movement in the United States 1960s.

Her 1980swas the driving forceWe are the world“, which was sung by a number of celebrities and aimed at fight against hunger.

At the same time, he worked to stop it. apartheid in South Africa and coordinated his first visit Nelson Mandela In the United States.

Pioneer and activist

Belafonte was born in Manhattan, New Yorkbut spent his early childhood in his family’s hometown, Jamaica. Handsome and kind, he became known as “King Calypsoin the early stages of his career.

He was the first black man who was allowed to appear in many night clubs and also racial references in movies at a time when segregation was strong across much of the United States.

IN “Island in the sun“, in 1954, the character he played had an affair with a white woman, played by Joan Fontaine – This movie has reportedly sparked threats to burn down movie theaters in the American South.

IN “Chances for tomorrow”, in 1959 he played a bank robber with a racist partner.

Belafonte traveled the world as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, United Nations Children’s Fundand in 1987 he founded iAIDS hospital.

Belafonte’s political ideas made headlines. January 2006during a trip to Venezuela when he called the president George W. Kust How “the biggest terrorist in the world“.

In the same month, he compared Department of Homeland Security USA with the Gestapo of Nazi Germany.

2014 won an Oscar for his humanitarian work.

All his life he spoke openly about her race and income equality and then called the president Barack Obama do more to help the poor.

He was one of the leaders of the “Women’s March on Washington” held the day after his inauguration. Donald Trump in January 2017.

An anthology of his music was released to celebrate his birthday. 90th birthday dated March 1, 2017.

A few weeks before the release, Belafonte told the magazine rolling stone that the song was a way to express their disagreement with the injustice happening in the world.

“The song gave me the opportunity to make political comments, to make social statements, to talk about things that I don’t like, but also about everything that inspired me,” he said.

Piece of resistance

He was born in Harlem, New York and later moved to Jamaica but returned to New York to attend high school.

He described his father as one abuse manwho was constantly drunk and who eventually abandoned him and his mother.

As he stated, he drew strength from his mother, an uneducated domestic servant, who instilled in him an activism spirit. “We were ordered to never capitulate, never give in, always resist oppression,” Belafonte said.

During The Second World War these principles prompted him to enroll in Navalwhich gave him stability after he dropped out of school.

“The Navy was a relief to me, but I was also driven by the belief that Hitler must be defeated. My commitment was maintained after the war. Wherever I encountered resistance to oppression, be it in Africa or Latin America, of course, here in the USA, and especially in the South, I participated in this battle, ”he stressed in an interview.

After the fleet, he worked as a janitor in an apartment building, then as a director in American Negro Theaterbefore getting roles and learning from him Marlon Brando And Sidney Poitieranother pioneering black actor with whom he became close friends.

Also performed on Broadway Almanacwinning the Tony Award, and in the film carmen jones, in 1954.

Belafonte’s third album. Calypsobecame the first to sell more than 1 million copies.

“banana boat“, a song about Caribbean dockworkers with a loud “Day O” call catapulted him artistically.

However, surgery on his vocal cords in the 1960s changed his voice, which now resembled cracked whisper.

1959began casting films and worked with Poitier on Buck and the Preacher and Uptown Saturday Night.

1984produced Beat Street, one of the first films about breakdancing and hip-hop culture.

He was the first black performer to win Amy V 1960. He also received awards Grammy in 1960 and 1965 and received another Grammy in 2000, but expressed dismay at the treatment of black artists in show business.

In 1994 he was awarded National Medal of Arts.

Belafonte was married three times. With the first wife Margarita Birdthey had two children, including an actress-model Shari Belafonte. He also had two children with his second wife, a former dancer. Julia Robinson.