Dandridge, Dorothy 1965

Dorothy Dandridge (1923-1965) was an American actress and singer, and the first African-American to be nominated for an academy award for Best Actress. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and performed for a number of years with her sisters in the “Wonder Children,” an act created by her entertainer mother, Ruby. From the age of nine, Dorothy Dandridge was raised in Los Angeles. During her singing career, she had success as both a solo performer, and as a member of the Dandridge Sisters, and performed in a number of famous places, including the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater in New York City. She started to get smaller movie roles in the mid-1930s, and gained her first starring role in the 1953 film, “Bright Road.” The best actress nomination was for her part in Carmen Jones in 1954. Dandridge also appeared in the musical version of Carmen Jones, performing in Cleveland at the Palace in 1954, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Dandridge’s final major film role was as Bess in Porgy and Bess, but the movie wasn’t a critical success. She was married twice, divorcing her second husband in 1962. In 1963, she filed for bankruptcy. Dorothy Dandridge died of an embolism in 1965.