Film

Hollywood Film Stars & Writers on the Civil Rights Movement & the March on Washington (1963)

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• published: 21 Jan 2014
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Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE (born February 20, 1927), is an American-born Bahamian actor, film director, author, and diplomat. In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films: To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, making him the top box-office star of that year. In all three films, issues revolve around the race of the characters Poitier portrays. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 -- December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. Baldwin's essays, such as the collection Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnameable tensions. Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 -- July 1, 2004) was an American screen and stage actor. He was hailed for bringing a gripping realism to film acting, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest movie actors of all time. A cultural icon, Brando is most famous for his Oscar-winning performances as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), as well as influential performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), The Wild One (1953), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando was also an activist, supporting many issues, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_brando Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. One of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million selling album by a single artist. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, most notably in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), 1957's Island in the Sun, and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 -- April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (February 11, 1909 -- February 5, 1993) was a film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and twice won the Academy Award for both Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay, for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mankiewicz