Ossie Davis
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Received the Frederick Douglass Award of the New York Urban League.
Served as master of ceremonies for the March on Washington (1963) and for the Solidarity Poor People's Campaign.
Biography
Tall, dignified veteran character player of the American stage and screen with a career spanning nearly half a century. With his wife and frequent collaborator, actor Ruby Dee, Davis was a staple of black theater. Both are longstanding political activists who were highly visible during the height of the civil rights movement and continue to speak out at rallies for progressive and humanitarian causes. Davis delivered the moving eulogy at the funeral of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X (which he repeated for the extended coda to Spike Lee's 1992 biopic). As a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and actor, Davis has often been associated with works that celebrate and inculcate the lessons of black history in the US. He thrived as an inspirational and iconic presence in contemporary African-American culture.
The young Davis set out on foot from Waycross, GA, to Washington, DC, to attend Howard University. He left before graduation and moved to New York, where he joined Harlem's Rose McClendon Players and studied acting under Lloyd Richards. After a stint in the Army during WWII, Davis made his Broadway debut in 1946, playing the title role of "Jeb." This also marked his first collaboration with Ruby Dee, who was also in the cast. The pair went on to tour together in a production of "Anna Lucasta" and married in 1948. Davis amassed numerous roles on Broadway including the lead in "A Raisin in the Sun" (succeeding Sidney Poitier). In 1961, he wrote and starred in the Broadway hit, "Purlie Victorious," an irreverent send-up of racism in the Old South, which he then adapted for the screen as "Gone Are the Days" (1963). He also wrote the book for "Purlie," the well-received 1970 Broadway musical version.
Davis debuted in features (along with Poitier) with "No Way Out" (1950), a powerful tale of racial hatred directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Subsequent film credits included "The Cardinal" (1963), "The Hill" (1965), and "The Scalphunters" (1968). Davis made a memorable feature debut as a writer-director in 1970 with a jaunty adaptation of Chester Himes's colorful novel, "Cotton Comes to Harlem," and subsequently directed "Kongi's Harvest" (1971), "Black Girl" (1972), "Gordon's War" (1973) and "Countdown at Kusini" (1976). He has since become a fixture in the films of Spike Lee, playing the enthusiuastic football coach in "School Daze" (1988), the wise neighborhood drunk in "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and the righteously intolerant minister father of Wesley Snipes in "Jungle Fever" (1991), a eulogist in "Malcolm X" (1992), "Get On the Bus" (1996) and "She Hate Me" (2004).
Davis has been a frequent presence on TV since his 1951 debut in a televised production of "Green Pastures." He and Dee have also hosted a radio and TV series. Davis produced the latter, "Ossie and Ruby" (PBS, 1987), a dramatic anthology series on which he often served as a director, writer, and actor. Davis has appeared in numerous TV-movies and several high-minded miniseries including "Roots: The Next Generations" (ABC, 1979) and "King" (NBC, 1978), delivering an acclaimed performance as Martin Luther King Sr. in the latter. More recently, after co-starring with his friend Burt Reynolds in ABC's series of "B.L. Stryker" TV movies, Davis lent his considerable air of dignity and wry, bemused stability to the small-town hijinks of Reynolds' popular sitcom "Evening Shade" (CBS, 1990-94) as Ponder Blue. He performed similar duties playing a heroic judge during the post-apocalyptic goings-on of "Stephen King's The Stand" (ABC, 1994). In 1996, Davis joined the ensemble cast of the CBS family drama "Promised Land" through 1998. He appeared in the short-lived crime drama series "The Protector" (1997) and the Anne Rice mini-series "The Feast of All Saints" (2001), and made guest appearances on several dramatic series, including "JAG," "Touched By an Angel," "Third Watch" and "City of Angels" (for which he won an Image Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series).
Davis's recent film credits are not limited to "Spike Lee Joints." The septuagenarian supporting player was far more dapper than the two top-billed "Grumpy Old Men" (1993) and he again presided as a jurist in "The Client" (1994), a role he recreated in the TV spinoff. Davis was praised for his turn opposite Walter Matthau in the screen adaptation of Herb Gardner's play "I'm Not Rappaport" (1996) and he appeared in the ensembles of two well-regarded telepics based on classic theatrical productions, "Miss Evers' Boys" (1997)--for which he recieved an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special--and "12 Angry Men" (1997). The actor also appeared briefly as Eddie Murphy's father Archer Doolittle in the comedy remake "Dr. Doolittle" (1998).
In 2001 Davis was awarded a Life Achievement Award by the Screen Actors Guild and his acting output had not slowed a bit: he continued to appear in a multitude of telepics, and especially received praise for his turn in "Finding Buck McHenry" (2000) as a school custodian who coaches an independent Little League team and is revealed to be a long-forgotten ex-Negro League legend. Davis appeared alongside Bruce Campbell in the instant cult classic "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2003) as Jack, a nursing home resident convinced he's John F. Kennedy, who teams with an eged Elvis (Bruce Campbell) to battle an evil ancient Egyptian entity. He was also one of the two central figures in the telepic "Deacons for the Defense" (2003) for which he was nominated for his seventh NAACP Image Award for playing the peaceful minister who co-founded the Deacons for Defense and Justice in 1964. The actor also took a pivitol role in "Baadasssss!" (2004), writer-director-star Mario Van Peebles' depiction of his father Melvin's struggles to film the influential 1971 classic "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." That same year Davis and his wife both received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, and, a consummate actor until the very end, Davis had four films in various stages of production when he died unexpectedly in early 2005. Davis famously delivered the quote "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" in a long-running series of promotional spots for the United Negro College Fund, and his long and accomplished career serves as proof that he wasted neither his mind nor his talent.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Director (Special)
Cast (Special)
Writer (Special)
Producer (Special)
Special Thanks (Special)
Misc. Crew (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1941
Professional acting debut, in "Joy Exceeding Glory" with the Rose McClendon Players
1942
Served in the US military
1946
Broadway acting debut as title character in "Jeb"; first collaboration with actress Ruby Dee, whom he married two years later
1946
Toured with Dee in a production of "Anna Lucasta"
1950
Film acting debut in "No Way Out"
1951
TV acting debut, "Green Pastures", on the Showtime Network
1955
Served as stage manager for the City Center production of "The World of Sholom Aleichem"
1961
Replaced Sidney Poitier in Broadway production of "A Raisin in the Sun"
1961
Wrote and starred in Broadway play, "Purlie Victorious"; later adapted into the musical "Purlie" (1970) which was nominated for a Tony award
1963
Screenwriting debut with "Gone Are the Days," adapted from the play "Purlie Victorious"; also reprised his role in the feature film version
1965
Delivered the eulogy at the funeral of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X
1970
Feature directing debut, "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (also scripted)
1978
Portrayed Martin Luther King, Sr. in the acclaimed NBC biopic miniseries "King"; nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy
1984
Executive produced and hosted first TV special, "Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum" (also acted)
1986
Starred in the Tony award-winning Broadway production of "I'm Not Rappaport" for 13 months
1987
Served as producer on "Ossie and Ruby", a PBS dramatic anthology series
1987
Directed first TV special, "A Letter to Booker T." (also produced, hosted and acted), an episode of "Ossie and Ruby"
1987
Wrote first TV special, "Fussell's Landing" (also acted), an episode of "Ossie and Ruby"
1989
Played Da Mayor in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"
1989
Cast as a regular on "B.L. Stryker", part of "The ABC Mystery Movie", starring Burt Reynolds
1990
Had a small role in "Joe Versus the Volcano" as Joe's driver, played by Tom Hanks
1990
Worked with Reynolds again as part of the stellar ensemble for the CBS sitcom, "Evening Shade" playing the role of Ponder Blue; also narrated
1991
Cast as The Good Reverend Doctor Purify in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever"
1992
Eulogy Performer in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X"
1993
Starred in Alex Haley's "Queen" a CBS miniseries
1995
Returned to series TV as regular in "John Grisham's 'The Client'", recreating his film role as a judge
1996
Played recurring role in the CBS drama series "Promised Land"
1996
Cast in "Get on the Bus," Spike Lee's film about the Million Man March
1997
Starred with Alfre Woodard and Laurence Fishburne in "Miss Evers' Boys," the true story of the US Government's 1932 Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiments
1998
Starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the comedy "Doctor Dolittle"
2004
Cast in Mario Van Peebles' "Baadasssss!"
2004
Emmy nomincated guest starring role as Kit (Pam Grier) and Bette's (Jennifer Beals) father on the Showtime drama series "The L word"
2004
Fifth collaboration with Spike Lee for the comedy "She Hate Me"
2006
With wife Ruby Dee, created the spoken word album, "With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together" (released after his death in 2005)
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Received the Frederick Douglass Award of the New York Urban League.
Served as master of ceremonies for the March on Washington (1963) and for the Solidarity Poor People's Campaign.
Recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, along with wife Ruby Dee.
