Harry Belafonte, EGOT-Winning Singer, Actor and Activist, Dead at 96

Harry Belafonte, a singer and civil-rights activist who made frequent television appearances throughout his long career, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in New York City.

Belafonte’s publicist confirmed the death via a statement to TVLine.

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An actor and singer from a young age, Belafonte became synonymous with Caribbean music; his album Calypso, which included hits like “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song” and “Jamaica Farewell,” stayed at the top of the Billboard album chart for 31 weeks after its release in 1956. The album also garnered him a gold record for selling more than 1 million LPs.

Belafonte’s amassed accolades point to his achievement in various aspects of arts and entertainment. He won a Tony for his performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. He picked up an Emmy for CBS’ production of Tonight With Belafonte. And in 2014, he was awarded the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. His several Grammy Awards included statuettes for 1960’s Swing Dat Hammer and 1965’s An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba.

Off-screen, Belafonte was a civil-rights champion who also worked to bring to light the truth about the lives of Black South Africans under Apartheid. He also was instrumental in USA for Africa, aka the group that recorded the single “We Are the World” in 1985.

TV viewers may know Belafonte from his many appearances on late-night talk shows, daytime chatfests, Sesame Street and more. His most recent on-screen role came in Spike Lee’s 2018 film BlacKkKlansman, in which he played Jerome Turner.

Watch Belafonte perform “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” on The Muppet Show below:

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