First black leading lady dies, aged 92
Source: Agencies |
May 11, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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ENTERTAINER Lena Horne, a show-stopping beauty who battled racism in a frustrating effort to become Hollywood's first black leading lady, has died at age 92, according to media reports yesterday.
The New York Times, quoting her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley, said Horne died on Sunday night in New York.
Horne went to Hollywood in the late 1930s and while she never became a major movie star, she is credited with breaking the ground for black actresses to get bigger roles in Hollywood.
With her big bright eyes, brilliant smile and light complexion, biographer James Gavin said Hollywood considered Horne "as the Negro beautiful enough - in a Caucasian fashion - for white Americans to accept."
Many of her movie appearances in the 1940s and '50s were relegated to songs that had no bearing on the plot and could easily be edited out for showings in the South, where white audiences might protest a black's appearance.
Her first substantial movie role did not come until 1969 when she played a brothel madam in "Death of a Gunfighter." Her only other movie role after that was as Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wiz," an all-black adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz."
She moved back to her native New York and became a singing star in nightclubs and theaters and on television. She won two Grammys.
The New York Times, quoting her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley, said Horne died on Sunday night in New York.
Horne went to Hollywood in the late 1930s and while she never became a major movie star, she is credited with breaking the ground for black actresses to get bigger roles in Hollywood.
With her big bright eyes, brilliant smile and light complexion, biographer James Gavin said Hollywood considered Horne "as the Negro beautiful enough - in a Caucasian fashion - for white Americans to accept."
Many of her movie appearances in the 1940s and '50s were relegated to songs that had no bearing on the plot and could easily be edited out for showings in the South, where white audiences might protest a black's appearance.
Her first substantial movie role did not come until 1969 when she played a brothel madam in "Death of a Gunfighter." Her only other movie role after that was as Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wiz," an all-black adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz."
She moved back to her native New York and became a singing star in nightclubs and theaters and on television. She won two Grammys.
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