While there are many admirable women that I have both recently learned about and have known for a while, I have more and more recently found myself drawn to a few amazing woman who work in the preforming arts. Although I myself have no interest in the preforming arts, as a teenager I am constantly exposed to the people of it via social media such as T.V. the internet, and magazines. A few of these woman have seemingly exploded into existence (such as Lupita Nyong’o and Janelle Monáe) and others are legends that have immortalized themselves into our hearts and history (such as Beyoncé Knowles-Carter). However I’m afraid that Dorothy Dandridge, a woman with a legend of her own but I have only recently been exposed to, takes the cake.
Born during the roaring twenties, Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American singer and actress. As a young woman, Dorothy always had an interest in the preforming arts. Ms. Dandridge had started off as a supporting actress who performed many “bit parts” or “under sixes” which is basically an actress who was given a small role typically with six lines or less within a production. Eventually after many of these Ms. Dandridge landed her first notable role in Tarzan’s Peril as Lex Barker in the year 1951. Two years later won her first starring role in 1953 as a teacher in Bright Road which was a nearly all-black cast low-budget movie. As a vocalist she performed in the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club, a night club in Harlem, NY.
Dorothy Dandridge nominated for an Academy and BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her role in Carmen Jones for her leading part as Carmen Jones in 1954. In 1959 she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Porgy and Bess and was such an acclaimed actress that even after her death in the September of 1965, she was the subject of HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge starring Halle Berry as Dorothy and achieved her own...
