Harry Belafonte, the activist known for his work onstage and his hit records, died at 96.
Actor, singer and civil rights icon Harry Belafonte has died. He was 96.
The New York Times reports that Belafonte died Tuesday at home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. His spokesperson, Ken Sunshine, told the outlet Belafonte died of congestive heart failure.
Belafonte, who was known as the “King of Calypso” for his hits like “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” first found success in music before expanding to acting and later, activism.
He was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. March 1, 1927, in Harlem. Belafonte and his mother and brother moved to Jamaica in 1936 before returning to Harlem four years later, in 1940, per the Times.
Belafonte dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Navy in 1944, and later enrolled at at Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop after being discharged and returning to New York. While taking classes there, he also performed at nightclubs and earned his first recording contract in 1949, per CNN.
In the years following, Belafonte won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical and appeared in films like Island in the Sun; The World, the Flesh and the Devil; and Odds Against Tomorrow.
