Ruby Dee

Personal Information
Recently seen in “A Few Good Hearts”, a Lifetime Film for TV. She is a recent recipient of an Audie Award for the unabridged audio book “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston (Harper Audio). Ms Dee has received the OBIE, Drama Desk and Ace Awards and with her husband Ossie Davis, a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame. Among her favorite roles are Lutiebelle in Purlie Victorious, by Ossie Davis; Lena in Fugard’s Boesman and Lena (OBIE); Julia in Alice Childress’Wedding Band (NYSF, Drama Desk); Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey (Ace); Cordelia in King Lear, Kate in Taming of the Shrew (both at American Shakespeare Festival), and Leah in Countdown At Kusini, a film for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Recent film and TV credits include Anne Rice’s Feast of All Saints and A Storm In Summer (both Showtime); Passing Glory (produced by Magic Johnson, Quincy Jones, and David Salzman, TNT); and Having Our Say (produced by Camille Cosby and Judith Rutherford James, CBS). She is also featured in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever and Do The Right Thing; Stephen King’s The Stand ; Buck and the Preacher (with Harry Belafonte, directed by Sidney Poitier). She is the voice of ‘Alice the Great’ in the “Little Bill” animated series on Nickelodeon. Ms. Dee is also a writer. In addition to plays and musicals, she has written a compilation of short stories and poetry entitled My One Good Nerve (John Wiley & Sons), which she developed into a solo performance piece (currently touring - The National Black Theatre Circuit and a planned staged video production), and a joint autobiography with Ossie Davis titled With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (Harper Collins). The couple recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
 
Credits

Actor
Production Theatre Opened Credit
1 A Last Dance for Sybil Abrons Arts Center/ Playhouse 12/03/2002 N/A
2 Saint Lucy's Eyes Julia Miles Theater 03/28/2001 Grandma
3 Hamlet Delacorte Theater 06/18/1975 Gertrude
4 Wedding Band Joseph Papp Public Theater/ Newman Theater 09/26/1972 Julia Augustine
5 Boesman and Lena Circle in the Square Downtown 06/22/1970 Lena
6 The World of Sholom Aleichem Barbizon-Plaza Theatre 05/01/1953 Defending Angel
Awards
Award Production Function
1 NOMINATED 2002 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Lead Actress Saint Lucy's Eyes Actor
2 WON 2002 Lucille Lortel Award, Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence    
3 WON 1971 Obie Award, Best Performance by an Actress Boesman and Lena Actor