Ruby Dee (1922-2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, and civil rights activist whose career stretched across seven decades, from the stages of Harlem and Broadway to film and television. She is best known for originating the role of Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and its 1961 film adaptation, and in 1965 became the first Black actress to hold lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival. Alongside her husband Ossie Davis, she was a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, earning an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar nomination over the course of her career.
Ruby Dee died on June 11, 2014 in her home in New Rochelle, New York at the age of 91.
Together with Ossie Davis, she won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word for the audiobook With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together.
She received the Kennedy Center Honor, one of the highest American awards in the arts.
