Harry Belafonte, the legendary Calypso singer, actor and human rights activist who broke racial barriers died on Tuesday at the age of 96 of congestive heart failure.
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Belafonte, who was an EGOT holder for his Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, died at his home on the Upper Wast Side of Manhattan in New York with his wife by his side, said Ken Sunshine, his longtime publicist to the New York Times.
Deemed the ‘King of Calypso’ of the 1950s, Belafonte’s iconic version of the Jamaican folk song ‘Day-O’ (also known as ‘The Banana Boat Song’) set off a craze for Calypso music and in.
With his good looks and signature shirt unbuttoned to his chest, audiences – black and white – adored him at a time when most of America was still segregated.
In addition to his trailblazing music career, he became the first Black actor to achieve major success in Hollywood, exploring controversial (at the time) racial themes in movies before moving on to work closely with his friend Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr during the United States Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
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Picture: @JoJoFromJerz / Twitter