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A distinguished and highly respected performer, Ossie Davis is an influential and versatile actor, director, producer, screenwriter, playwright, and historian. The son of a railroad engineer, he was born in Cogdell, GA, on December 18, 1917. After earning a degree at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University, he moved to New York to attempt a writing career and to study drama with Harlem's Rose McClendon Players. Despite his college diploma, Davis found work on the side in various menial jobs. He then spent a couple years in the military, where he penned and performed a few shows for the troops. After the war, he made his Broadway debut in 1946 appearing in Jeb Turner. It was a short-lived show, but it did serve to introduce him to his future wife, Ruby Dee, with whom he later hosted a radio and television show. By the 1950s, Davis had become a well-respected supporting actor. He began a sporadic film career with No Way Out (which also starred Dee) in 1950. That same year, he also appeared in a couple of television dramas. As the decade progressed, Davis' career began flagging, but during the 1960s, as American television became more open to African-American actors, Davis began getting more roles in that venue. He appeared in a number of shows, including the acclaimed 1967 detective drama The Outsider. During that decade, Davis also appeared in a number of films, working with directors like Otto Preminger on The Cardinal (1963) and Sidney Lumet on The Hill (1965). In addition to his film and television work, Davis became a major force in the theater: in 1961, he wrote the hit Broadway musical Purlie Victorious, for which he won great acclaim. Two years later, he adapted the play into Gone Are the Days, and also starred in the film. Davis added directing to his resum |
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