With the death of Harry Belafonte, America lost an icon of musical genius and activist. He climbed from a life of poverty to one of his massive record sales and sold-out concerts, using his fame as a performer to shed light on the causes he believed in. .
But Belafonte was also a major movie star, and although his film work was less prolific, he appeared in an astounding 20 feature films during his 65-year film career. was not enough. Below are some highlights, all available for streaming.
“Carmen Jones” (1954)
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Belafonte’s first leading role was her second film appearance after a supporting role in Dorothy Dandridge’s ride, ‘Bright Road’. He re-teamed with Oscar Dandridge for the film adaptation of Otto Her Preminger in Hammerstein His II musical “Carmen Jones”. Although the production was notoriously intense, Belafonte couldn’t have asked for a project better suited to his talents. The photo gave him the same opportunity to smolder with emotion as young soldier Joe, proving that this wasn’t just a pop his singer sideline. in the movies. This was the work of a full-fledged movie star.
However, Belafonte’s first work was short-lived. After some good dramatic turns in the late 1950s (most notably Robert Wise’s “Odds Against Tomorrow,” which unfortunately could not be streamed), Belafonte devoted his 1960s to the civil rights movement. bottom. But he triumphantly returned to the screen in this hilariously quirky comedy his drama, playing the title role. of misfortune and malice. This kind of material can easily be turned into maudlin or profane.
“Buck and the Preacher” (1972)
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The comic chops Belafonte displayed in “The Angel Levine” would go on to define his best screen work of the 1970s. Two years later, he teamed up with his fellow actor-activist Sidney Poitier for what was clearly intended as a black riff on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” From white bounty hunters. Poitier plays the straight man, as he often does in comedy, allowing Belafonte to explode as the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford, a con man disguised as a cloth man.First director Joseph Sargent fired days after the shootingPoitier took over directorial duties and launched a new career in cinema.
“Uptown Saturday Night” (1974)
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Not surprisingly, when Poitier directed his next comedy, he again asked Belafonte to participate. Poitier co-stars alongside Bill Cosby in this rowdy buddy action-comedy (fair warning). Enhanced underworld boss. With “The Godfather” still fresh in the minds of moviegoers, Belafonte plays an impersonator of Marlon Brando’s already iconic performance as Don Her Vito Her Corleone, with a raspy voice, puffy cheeks and a pencil-like voice. Completed a thin mustache. It’s an inspired, comic act, a reminder that serious performers were accustomed to a wide range of “Saturday Night Live”-style antics.
“Kansas City” (1996)
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Belafonte took another long break from screen acting for nearly two decades after “Uptown.” Still, he first appeared as himself in a pair of star-studded Robert His Altman pictures (“The Player” and “Ready to Wear”). But Altman got another great full-length performance from the performers in his drama, his comedy gangster of this era. The film is set in the city and era of the director’s youth. Rarely seen with a great name and constant whispering as Kansas City’s underworld boss, Belafonte eschews his usual warmth and comical tendencies to play a truly menacing villain. It’s a chilling and haunting turn that marks the kind of third act he could have had as a character actor had he chosen that path.
“Sing Your Song: Harry Belafonte” (2012)
Instead, he chose to keep fighting. Directed by Suzanne Rostock, this late biographical documentary, produced with his own participation and blessing, occasionally veers into hagiography and provides a glimpse into the troubling aspects of his long and complicated life. . But with so much to celebrate, we can hardly blame its creators. “Sing Your Song,” edited with a clip from the show, honors Belafonte, the artist, but even more so, the man. Spending his life working for causes he believed in, often risking his own career and comfort.
“BlackKlansman” (2018)
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Belafonte’s last film appearance was, crucially, a protest work by provocative black filmmakers. He appears in a cameo role as civil rights activist Jerome Turner in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Ron Stallworth’s memoir, while imparting the history and knowledge of the struggle for civil rights. In one of his unforgettable scenes, Belafonte demonstrates not only his skill and charisma as an actor, but the toughness of his decades in the trenches of the struggle.
