Ruby Dee attends ‘The Mountaintop’ Broadway opening night at The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on October 13, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Getty Images)
Ruby Dee (L) attends the funeral service for Clarice Taylor at Caanan Baptist Church on June 7, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Ruby Dee attends the premiere of ‘For Colored Girls’ at Ziegfeld Theatre on October 25, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)
Ruby Dee attends the premiere of ‘For Colored Girls’ at Ziegfeld Theatre on October 25, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
Actors Danny Glover and Ruby Dee speak at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s presentation of the 38th Annual Chaplin Award at Alice Tully Hall on May 2, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Getty Images)
Musician Quincy Jones, honoree Sydney Poitier and actress Ruby Dee attend The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s presentation of the 38th Annual Chaplin Award at Alice Tully Hall on May 2, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Getty Images)
Actress Ruby Dee attends a screening of ‘Soundtrack for a Revolution’ hosted by Tribeca Film Institute’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund at Tribeca Cinemas on January 9, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Kohen/Getty Images)
From Ebony.com:
“The original Will and Jada.” Amid the hubbub at Harlem’s Schomburg Center late Wednesday night, during a special event celebrating the 90th birthday of living legend Ruby Dee, a dad explained the honoree in terms his teenage son might understand. His description, of course, hardly scratches the surface. Ask Melvin Van Peebles, Jesse Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover or any of the other distinguished celebs milling around and a clearer picture would definitely develop. Through seven decades, the Oscar-nominated actress, activist and (with late husband Ossie Davis) matrimonial icon Ruby Dee mixed African-American love, art and politics into a unique legacy all her own.
Hundreds of invited guests took seats in the auditorium, and after a brief intro by Angela Bassett, the Schomburg screened Life’s Essentials With Ruby Dee. Directed by Dee’s grandson Muta’Ali, and funded through Kickstarter (raising $50,000 in just 40 days), the documentary traces the actress’s life and times in the context of Muta’Ali questioning social activism and matrimony. A work in progress, the unfinished doc concluded after 30 minutes with a flirtatious Belafonte singing “Happy Birthday to You.”
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