Iconic EGOT Winner, Activist Harry Belafonte Dies at 96; How to Stream Films, Documentaries, More from His Career
On Tuesday, the world lost an icon in the legendary performer, civil rights activist, and humanitarian Harry Belafonte. The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner passed away at the age of 96. After starting his career in his native New York City as a jazz singer in the late 1940s and early ’50s, often backed by the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Max Roach, he released his first hit song “Matilda” in 1953. Then, a year later, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.” His first album “Calypso” was released in 1956 and brought unquestionably the most enduring song of his career, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).”
Belafonte went on to regularly perform with the Rat Pack in Las Vegas throughout the years while also transitioning to the screen. During the 1950s, he starred in such films as “Carmen Jones,” “Island in the Sun,” and “Odds Against Tomorrow,” before he took a hiatus from the screen for most of the 1960s to focus on music. He later returned to the screen with roles in “Buck and the Preacher,” “Uptown Saturday Night,” “Kansas City,” and more. His last major film role came in 2018’s Oscar-winning Spike Lee drama “BlacKKKlansman,” playing a fictional civil rights leader named Jerome Turner.
In addition to his work as an actor and musician, Belafonte was a passionate activist fighting for equal rights in the United States and around the world. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-Apartheid movement, combatting world hunger, HIV/AIDS awareness, prostate cancer advocacy, and many other important causes. Belafonte was one of the organizers of the Grammy-winning song “We Are the World,” and for the last 36 years of his life, he was a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador. In 2014, Belafonte received the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, completing his EGOT honor.
So, if you are looking to celebrate the life and career of Belafonte, we have collected some of the highlights from his career that are available to stream today.
How to Stream Highlights from Harry Belafonte’s Acting Career:
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BlacKkKlansman
August 9, 2018Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.
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Kansas City
August 16, 1996A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.
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Grambling's White Tiger
October 4, 1981A young white man goes to a historically black college for the chance to be the starting quarterback. There he encounters considerable resentment and learns what it’s like to be in the minority.
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Uptown Saturday Night
July 26, 1974Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.
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Buck and the Preacher
March 17, 1972A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
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The Angel Levine
July 28, 1970Morris Mishkin is a elderly religious Jew in New York. His wife Fanny is very ill. He’s a tailor, but he can’t work because his back has given out. He doesn’t even have enough money for Fanny’s medicine. Finally, a black fellow appears from nowhere in the Mishkin kitchen. He says he’s an angel from God, sent to help Mishkin. The black angel is even Jewish, named Alex Levine? But will Morris believe in the angel? And can the angel perform the miracle that he promises?
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The World, the Flesh and the Devil
May 1, 1959Ralph Burton is a miner who is trapped for several days as a result of a cave-in. When he finally manages to dig himself out, he realizes that all of mankind seems to have been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He travels to New York City only to find it deserted. Making a life for himself there, he is flabbergasted to eventually find Sarah Crandall, who also managed to survive. Together, they form a close friendship until the arrival of Benson Thacker who has managed to pilot his small boat into the city’s harbor. At this point, tensions rise between the three, particularly between Thacker, who is white, and Burton, who is black.
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Island in the Sun
June 12, 1957On a Caribbean island, a rich landowner’s son, Maxwell Fleury, is fighting for political office against black labor leader David Boyeur. As if the contentious election weren’t enough, there are plenty of scandals to go around: Boyeur has a secret white lover and Fleury’s wife, Sylvia, is also having an affair. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of a recently murdered aristocrat.
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Carmen Jones
October 28, 1954The tale of the cigarette-maker Carmen and the Spanish cavalry soldier Don Jose is translated into a modern-day story of a parachute factory worker and a stalwart GI named Joe who is about to go to flying school. Conflict arises when a prize-ring champ captures the heart of Carmen after she has seduced Joe and caused him to go AWOL.
Another great performance that you need to see in order to complete your Harry Belafonte retrospective is his appearance in the 14th episode of Season 3 of the original version of “The Muppet Show.”
The Muppet Show
Go behind the curtains as Kermit the Frog and his muppet friends struggle to put on a weekly variety show.
How to Stream Documentaries Featuring Harry Belafonte:
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Is That Black Enough for You?!?
October 9, 2022A look at the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism, from the making of new superstars to the craft of rising auteurs.
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The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show
April 15, 2020For one week in February 1968, Johnny Carson gave up his chair to Harry Belafonte, the first time an African-American had hosted a late night TV show for a whole week.
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Mr. SOUL!
April 27, 2018On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, one fearless black pioneer reconceived a Harlem Renaissance for a new era, ushering giants and rising stars of black American culture onto the national television stage. He was hip. He was smart. He was innovative, political, and gay. In his personal fight for social equality, this man ensured the Revolution would be televised. The man was Ellis Haizlip. The Revolution was soul!
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Sing Your Song
January 13, 2012Most people know the lasting legacy of Harry Belafonte, the entertainer. This film unearths his significant contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and to social justice globally.
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The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
April 1, 2011Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.
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We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song
January 28, 1985We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song is a documentary which examines how the song was written, how producer Quincy Jones and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie persuaded some of the most popular performers in America to donate their services to the project, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the marathon recording session that produced the single.
Of course, no list honoring the impact of Harry Belafonte could be complete without reliving the otherworldly (and undead) performance of “Day-O” in the film version of “Beetlejuice.”
Beetlejuice
A newly dead New England couple seek help from a deranged demon exorcist to scare an affluent New York family out of their home.
Godspeed, and thank you, Mr. Belafonte.