![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2023\/z042523rip_harry_belafonte.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.), the singer, actor and activist died today from congestive heart failure.\u00a0 Mr. Belafonte was 96.<\/p>\n
After graduation from high school Mr. Belafonte served in the Navy.\u00a0 Following his time in the service he got work as a janitor’s assistant. It was during this period that Harry Belafonte attended the American Negro Theater and decided he wanted to be a performer.\u00a0 It was also when he developed a friendship with Sidney Poitier.<\/p>\n
Harry Belafonte began singing in nightclubs to help pay for his acting classes.\u00a0 Along the way he performed with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis before getting a record contract.<\/p>\n
Harry Belafonte began taking acting classes at The Dramatic Workshop of the New School<\/em>.\u00a0 There he studied along with future stars such as Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis and Walter Mathhau.<\/p>\n In 1954, Harry Belafonte received a Tony Award<\/em> for his part in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac<\/em>.\u00a0 In 1956, Mr. Belafonte’s album Calypso<\/em> became the first to sell one million copies in a year.\u00a0 Harry Belafonte would go on to released 49 albums.<\/p>\n In 1953, Harry Belafonte appeared in the feature film Bright Road<\/em>.\u00a0 The following year he appeared in his breakout role in Carmen Jones<\/em>.\u00a0 For the rest of his career, Mr. Belafonte would perform on stage, recording or performing live and acting in feature films or on television.<\/p>\n Some of Harry Belafonte’s feature film performances include: Bright Road; Carmen Jones; Island in the Sun; The World, The Flesh and the Devil; Odds Against Tomorrow; Buck and the Preacher<\/em> and Uptown Saturday Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n Some of Harry Belafonte’s television appearances include:\u00a0 Front Row Center; The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em> (10 episodes); The Steve Allen Show; Tonight With Belafonte; The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour; The Tonight Show; The Flip Wilson Show; The Muppet Show; Grambling’s White Tiger<\/em> and An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends<\/em>.<\/p>\n Throughout his life, Harry Belafonte was an humanitarian activist.\u00a0 He supported Civil Rights causes. Harry Belafonte became a friend and confidant to Martin Luther King, Jr.\u00a0 Harry Belafonte helped to bring together artists to perform on We Are The World<\/em>, the Grammy Award-winning<\/em> song used to raise funds for Africa. He served as an UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador<\/em> for over 35 years, the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador<\/em> for juvenile justice issues, the cultural advisor to the Peace Corps<\/em><\/p>\n Harry Belafonte won three Grammy Awards<\/em>, an Emmy Award<\/em> (1960 for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series<\/em> for “Tonight with Belafonte”<\/em>), a Tony Award<\/em> (1954 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical<\/em>), a Kennedy Centers Honors Award<\/em> (1989 for lifetime contributions to the performing arts); a National Medal of Arts Award<\/em> (1994, highest honor given to artists and patrons of the arts by the United States government),\u00a0 the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award<\/em> (2014, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences<\/em> (AMPAS) for an individual’s “outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes”),\u00a0 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/em> (2022 as an Early Influencer).<\/p>\n Harry Belafonte’s talent was unsurpassed and may only be matched by his dedication to humanitarian efforts.<\/p>\n Our thoughts and prayers go out to Harry Belafonte’s family, friends and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.), the singer, actor and activist died today from congestive heart failure.\u00a0 Mr. Belafonte<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,72,54,64,57,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-history","category-movies","category-music","category-rip","category-trivia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32736,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735\/revisions\/32736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}