Ruby Dee

Actress

October 27, 1922 (91 years)

† June 11, 2014

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Biography

Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun. Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Do the Right Thing (1989) and American Gangster (2007).

Filmography

7.6

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Mary Wilson

A Las Vegas team of forensic investigators are trained to solve criminal cases by scouring the crime scene, collecting irrefutable evidence and finding the missing pieces that solve the mystery.

7.3

The Fugitive

Laura Smith

Richard Kimble is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derails and crashes, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man". At the same time, Dr. Kimble is hounded by the authorities, most notably dogged by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard.

6.5

American Experience

Narrator (voice)

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

6.1

Great Performances

Self

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

7.6

The Golden Girls

Mammy Watkins

Four Southern Florida seniors share a house, their dreams, and a whole lot of cheesecake. Bright, promiscuous, clueless and hilarious, these lovely, mismatched ladies form the perfect circle of friends.

7.2

Touched by an Angel

LaBelle Springbelt

Monica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives.

6.8

The Dick Cavett Show

Self - Guest

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

6.4

Police Woman

Sergeant “Pepper"” Anderson, an undercover cop for the Criminal Conspiracy Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, poses undercover from mob girl to prostitute.

6.3

The Defenders

Catherine Collins

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing.

7.0

The Oscars

Self

An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar.

8.3

Reading Rainbow

Self - Narrator (voice)

Journey to exciting places and build a lasting connection with your favorite books. Each episode centers on a theme from a book, or other children's literature, which is explored through a number of segments or stories.

6.3

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

Grandma (voice)

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.

7.5

China Beach

Dateline: November 1967. Within klicks of Danang, Vietnam, sits a U.S. Army base, bar and hospital on China Beach filled with wounded soldiers and one very lovely but damaged Army Nurse Colleen McMurphy. Many heroes, dead and alive, try to make sense of life and death in between bourbon, bullets and battles.

6.8

The Stand

Mother Abagail Freemantle

After a deadly plague kills most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a maleficent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.

7.4

The Kennedy Center Honors

Self

The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.

6.9

Spenser: For Hire

Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode.

7.6

American Gangster

Mama Lucas

Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.

7.4

Roots: The Next Generations

Queen Haley

Roots: The Next Generations is a television miniseries, introduced in 1979, continuing, from 1882 to the 1960s, the fictionalized story of the family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, USA. This sequel to the 1977 miniseries is based on the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family plus additional material by Haley. Roots: The Next Generations was produced with a budget of $16.6 million, nearly three times as large as that of the original.

10.0

The Great Adventure

Harriet Tubman

The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, narrated each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented a weekly one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important historical events in American History.

6.9

Little Bill

Little Bill is a television show for children that is presently on Nick Jr. The stories are based on Bill Cosby's Little Bill book series, set in Philadelphia and feature Bill Jr. learning a lesson or moral. It was developed through research and in consultation with a panel of educational consultants. The show also aired on CBS as part of Nick Jr. on CBS, from September 16, 2000 - September 7, 2002, then as part of Nick on CBS from August 2, 2003 - September 10, 2005. The show returned with the return of Nick Jr. on CBS on September 17, 2005, and seen through September 9, 2006 when the block was replaced with The KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS. The series went back into production in fall 2006 and a new season of 6 episodes aired on Noggin throughout April and July 2007, ending in the later month. Reruns are played on Nick Jr., on BET, as of January 7, 2008, and on Centric, as of May 1, 2010. Sonia Manzano, best known for playing Maria Rodriguez on Sesame Street, was a frequent writer for the show.