Academy Award-nominated actress Ruby Dee was, by all accounts, an American icon. Her career spanned no... (Learn more)
Top Projects: Little Bill, Reading Rainbow, Oprah Winfrey... (View All)
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Ruby Dee’s Milestones
| Co-produced and starred on radio program, "The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee Story Hour" | |
| Garnered much acclaim for playing the female lead in the stage play "Boesman and Lena" | |
| Grew up in Harlem | |
| Worked as columnist for NYC's Amsterdam News and as associate editor of Freedomways magazine | |
| 1941 - 1944 | Worked as apprentice at American Negro Theater (classmates included Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte) |
| 1943 | First Broadway role as a native in "South Pacific" |
| 1946 | First starring role on Broadway as title character in "Anna Lucasta" |
| 1946 | Had a featured role in "Jeb"; first Broadway appearance with Ossie Davis |
| 1950 | Feature acting debut opposite Sidney Poitier in "No Way Out" |
| 1950 | Portrayed the ballplayer's wife in "The Jackie Robinson Story" |
| 1952 | Had regular role on TV daytime soap, "The Guiding Light" (CBS) |
| 1957 | Appeared in "Edge of the City" |
| 1959 | Portrayed Ruth Younger in the Broadway presentation of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" |
| 1960 | Featured in "Seven Times Monday" on "Play of the Week" |
| 1961 | Co-starred in the stage production "Purlie Victorious" |
| 1961 | Reprised stage role in feature version of "A Raisin in the Sun" |
| 1963 | Co-starred in the film version of Genet's "The Balcony" |
| 1964 | Earned first Emmy nomination for guest appearance on the ABC series "The Nurses" |
| 1966 | Cast in the lead role of a black woman who marries a white man in "The Wedding Band" |
| 1967 | Acted in the big screen drama "The Incident" |
| 1968 | Had regular role on the ABC primetime serial "Peyton Place" |
| 1968 | Screenwriting debut as co-author of "Uptight"; also co-starred |
| 1972 | Portrayed Leslie Uggams' mother in the feature "Black Girl"; directed by husband Ossie Davis |
| 1972 | Reprised role of black woman in an interracial marriage in the Off-Broadway production "Wedding Band" (filmed for TV) |
| 1974 | Once again played a baseball player's wife in the TV biopic "It's Good to Be Alive" (CBS) |
| 1979 | Portrayed Alex Haley's grandmother Queen in "Roots: The Next Generation" (ABC) |
| 1979 | Wrote play, "Twin-Bit Gardens"; laster revised and presented as "Take It from the Top"; also made stage directing debut |
| 1980 | Co-hosted and starred in the series "Ossie & Ruby" (with husband Ossie Davis); also produced and directed episodes |
| 1980 | Co-starred with Ossie Davis in "All God's Children" |
| 1983 | With Davis, headlined an all-black TV production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" |
| 1985 | Appeared in "The Atlanta Child Murders" (CBS) |
| 1988 | Returned to Broadway alongside Denzel Washington and Paul Winfield in "Checkmates" |
| 1989 | Played supporting role of a mystical neighborhood resident in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" |
| 1989 | Portrayed Amanda Winfield in a staging of "The Glass Menagerie" in Washington, DC |
| 1990 | Portrayed famed Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston in "Zora Is My Name!" (PBS); also wrote teleplay |
| 1991 | With husband, played the parents of Wesley Snipes in Lee's "Jungle Fever" |
| 1994 | Portrayed Mother Abagail in the TV adaptation of "Stephen King's The Stand" (ABC) |
| 1995 | Co-starred in the Academy Award nominated short "Tuesday Morning Ride" |
| 1999 | Portrayed Bessie Delany in the TV presentation "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years" |
| 1999 | Provided the voice of Alice the Great in the Nickelodeon animated series "Little Bill" starring Bill Cosby |
| 1999 | Wrote and starred in the stage production "My One Good Nerve: A Visit With Ruby Dee" |
| 2000 | Cast in the Showtime movies, "A Storm in Summer" and "Finding Buck McHenry"; co-starred with husband Ossie Davis |
| 2001 | Returned to the NY stage in "St. Lucy's Eyes" |
| 2006 | With husband Ossie Davis, created the spoken word album, "With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together" (released after Ossie's death) |
| 2007 | Played Frank Lucas' (Denzel Washington) mother in "American Gangster"; earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress |
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