Essential Harry Belafonte Films

Carmen Jones starring Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge

Odds Against Tomorrow starring Harry Belafonte

Uptown Saturday Night Starring: Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby

Kansas City starring Harry Belafonte, Jennifer Jason Leigh

White Man's Burden starring Harry Belafonte, John Travolta

For Americans who grew up in the 1950s, Harry Belafonte will always, inevitably register first as a singer, his phenomenal success as the embodiment of calypso rivaling if not eclipsing his longer, more varied career as an actor and producer. His links to the West Indian musical style were legitimate, but Belafonte was born and largely raised in New York, where he studied at the Actors Studio and with the American Negro Theater. The first black entertainer to win an Emmy, Belafonte's first major film, Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones, ironically dubbed another singer's voice over Belafonte's. The 1970s' blaxploitation wave subsequently found the groundbreaking performer criticized for being too quick to assimilate, despite '50s and '60s projects that confronted racial issues. More recent films, while rare, have cast Belafonte convincingly in character roles.

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