Harry Belafonte, Calypso and civil rights activist, dies aged 96
25 April 2023, 14:54 | Updated: 25 April 2023, 15:32
Beloved Calypso singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has died aged 96.
Mr Belafonte was pronounced dead at his home in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York on Tuesday. He died of congestive heart failure, his spokesperson said.
He was best known for his song The Banana Boat Song, with its famous 'Day-O' lyric, and also had hits with Jump In The Line and Jamaica Farewell.
Mr Belafonte, who was born in New York and raised partly in Jamaica, is thought to have had the first album to have reached a million sales, with Calypso.
He also appeared in several films, including Carmen Jones, Island in the Sun and Odds against Tomorrow.
Mr Belafonte was a prominent activist for civil rights in the US and abroad, and was a friend and supporter of Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson.
He later said: "Paul Robeson had been my first great formative influence; you might say he gave me my backbone. Martin King was the second; he nourished my soul."
He also campaigned against apartheid in South Africa and continued to be critical of US foreign policy through the rest of his life.
Mr Belafonte was born in 1927 in the neighbourhood of Harlem, before moving to Jamaica with family for eight years. He later moved back to New York. He dropped out of school and served in the Navy in New Jersey aged 17.
After the war he became a janitor's assistant - but realised he wanted to become an actor after watching plays at the American Negro Theatre.
Mr Belafonte released his first album in 1954. His second, Belafonte, got to number one in the US, while his third, Calypson which harked back to his Jamaican heritage, was his most successful.
He maintained his acting career alongside his singing. In Island in the Sun, he appeared with stars like Joan Fontaine, James Mason and Joan Collins, with whom he had an affair. But he refused to take part in Porgy and Bess because he found the part he was offered racially demeaning.
Mr Belafonte would later say that this decision "helped fuel the rebel spirit" inside him, and he continued to fight for civil rights and left-wing causes for the rest of his life.
He helped organise a march on Washington that ended in Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech, and bailed Dr. King out of jail, as well as funding activism against racist policies in the US south.
Mr Belafonte continued to criticise US government policies at home and abroad, including the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Belafonte was married three times and had four children. His first marriage, to Marguerite Byrd, lasted nine years from 1948 to 1957. His second, to Julie Robinson, lasted 47 years, from 1957 to 2005. He married Pamela Frank in 2008.
