Thursday, July 23, 2026

RIP Ruby Dee, Famed Actress and Civil Rights Leader, was 91

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NY Daily News and others are starting to report the death of actress Ruby Dee at age 91. The widow of Ossie Davis was a landmark New Yorker and civil rights leader who blazed through stage and film and TV. She was nominated for an Oscar in 2008 for “American Gangster,” has an Emmy award and several Emmy nominations. Dee’s many successes stretched back to her 1959 debut in the original production of “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway as Ruth Younger. Her death even at this age comes as a shock since just two days ago we saw her in a video at the Apollo Theater’s 80th anniversary from a recent interview. Talk about a real legend. She and Ossie will never be forgotten…

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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