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Ossie Davis is a Actor, Director and Scriptwriter American born on 17 december 1917 at Georgia (USA)
Ossie Davis (born Raiford Chatman Davis; December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and social activist.
They were well known as civil rights activists, and were close friends of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other icons of the era. Davis and Dee's deep involvement in the movement is characterized by how instrumental they were in organizing the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, even to the point of serving as emcee. Davis, alongside Ahmed Osman, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. He re-read part of this eulogy at the end of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X. He also delivered a stirring tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, at a memorial in New York's Central Park the day after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Ossie Davis
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Birth name Raiford Chatman Davis
Nationality USA
Birth 17 december 1917 at Georgia (USA)
Death 4 february 2005 (at 87 years) at Miami (USA)
Awards Daytime Emmy Award, National Medal of Arts
Nationality USA
Birth 17 december 1917 at Georgia (USA)
Death 4 february 2005 (at 87 years) at Miami (USA)
Awards Daytime Emmy Award, National Medal of Arts
Ossie Davis (born Raiford Chatman Davis; December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and social activist.
Biography
In 1948, Davis married actress Ruby Dee. In their joint autobiography With Ossie and Ruby, they described their decision to have an open marriage (later changing their minds). In the mid 1960s they moved to the New York suburb of New Rochelle where they remained ever after. Their son Guy Davis is a blues musician and former actor, who appeared in the film Beat Street and the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. Their daughters are Nora Davis Day and Hasna Muhammad.They were well known as civil rights activists, and were close friends of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other icons of the era. Davis and Dee's deep involvement in the movement is characterized by how instrumental they were in organizing the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, even to the point of serving as emcee. Davis, alongside Ahmed Osman, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. He re-read part of this eulogy at the end of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X. He also delivered a stirring tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, at a memorial in New York's Central Park the day after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Filmography of Ossie Davis (59 films)
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The Peace! (2005)
, 48minutesOrigin Canada
Genres Documentary
Themes Children's films
Actors Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Ossie Davis, Danny Schechter
Roles Self
Rating81%
The Peace Tree tells the story of two little girls, one Muslim and one Christian, who dream of celebrating each other’s festivals, Christmas and Eid. But when they share their dreams, they are met with resistance from their parents who express their concerns. Through their struggles, they create a unique symbol—The Peace Tree, a tree that highlights the symbols from all our cultures and faiths to reflect the beauty of "diversity in unity". The Peace Tree shares the voices of the children who try to enlighten their parents to the importance of sharing and celebrating diversity together.
Proud (2004)
, 1h27Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Political films
Actors Ossie Davis, Aidan Quinn, Janet Hubert, Denise Nicholas, Kidada Jones, Reggie Austin
Roles Lorenzo DuFau
Rating56%
The film focuses on the meritorious service of the USS Mason (DE-529) of World War II, the first US Navy ship with a predominantly African American crew, and how three of the men were finally honored in January 1994 for their meritorious service.
She Hate Me (2004)
, 2h18Directed by Spike Lee
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Biography, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Horror, Romance
Themes Films about sexuality, Erotic films, LGBT-related films, Political films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Lesbian-related films
Actors Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Jamel Debbouze, Brian Dennehy
Roles Judge Buchanan
Rating52%
John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) is a financially successful and upwardly mobile executive at a biotechnology firm who, following the suicide of a colleague, Dr. Herman Schiller, is falsely accused of securities fraud by his superior, Leland Powell (Woody Harrelson). Armstrong's assets are frozen, and he finds himself unable to maintain his quality of life.
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks (2003)
Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Films about television, Documentary films about business, Documentary films about the film industry, Documentaire sur une personnalité
Actors Beah Richards, Bill Cobbs, Ossie Davis, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Ruby Dee, Lynn Hamilton
Roles Self
Rating84%
, 1h15Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Historical
Actors Whoopi Goldberg, Roscoe Lee Browne, Alfre Woodard, Ruby Dee, LaTanya Richardson, CCH Pounder
Rating78%
Baadasssss! (2003)
, 1h48Directed by Mario Van Peebles
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Documentary
Themes Films about films
Actors David Alan Grier, Mario Van Peebles, Nia Long, Joy Bryant, Adam West, Rainn Wilson
Roles Granddad
Rating72%
Melvin Van Peebles stunned the world for the first time, with his debut feature, The Story of a Three Day Pass. Filmed in France and selected as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, Melvin's film was awarded the top prize. Saying it was controversial would be an understatement. In 1968 for a black man to walk up to the podium and accept the top festival award for a film he had to go abroad to make—now that's how you make your mark. After his comedy, Watermelon Man, Melvin was determined to push the Hollywood boundaries with the groundbreaking, and even more controversial, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Turned down by every major studio including Columbia, where he had a three-picture deal, Melvin was forced to basically self-finance. Risking everything he had Melvin delivered to the world the first Black Ghetto hero on the big screen—whether they were ready or not! More than 30 years later, history is being fashioned again in the telling of this very tale. Mario Van Peebles, Melvin's son, directs an honest and revealing portrait of his pioneering father. Mario now tells the story of the making of Melvin Van Peebles' landmark 1971 film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, including Melvin's struggles to raise money to fund the film under the guise of creating a black porno film. Melvin had ducked creditors, the unions and had to bail out his camera crew after they were arrested because a white cop decided a bunch of Negroes and hippies could not have come by that camera equipment honestly. Despite death threats and temporarily losing sight in one eye, Melvin somehow managed to whip into shape a rag-tag, multi-racial crew and finish the film that would give birth to birth of a new era which was about to explode: Independent Black Cinema.
Deacons for Defense (2003)
, 1h35Directed by Bill Duke
Genres Drama
Actors Forest Whitaker, Christopher Britton, Ossie Davis, Jonathan Silverman, Mpho Koaho, Melanie Nicholls-King
Roles Reverend 'Rev' Gregory
Rating69%
In 1965 Louisiana, war veteran Marcus (Forest Whitaker) works in the town's mill for meager wages, and must endure the ongoing humiliation meted out by his white supervisors. Encouraged by an idealistic white Northerner (Jonathan Silverman), his daughter becomes a civil rights activist. When his daughter is abused at a nonviolent demonstration, Marcus is pushed too far. Marcus organizes the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an all-black defense group dedicated to patrolling the black section of town and protecting its residents from the aspects of "white backlash".
Bubba Ho-tep (2002)
, 1h32Directed by Don Coscarelli
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Fantastic, Comedy, Horror comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Films about families, Films about music and musicians, Films about television, Musical films, Political films, Comedy horror films
Actors Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Bob Ivy, Heidi Marnhout, Paul Giamatti
Roles John F. "Jack" Kennedy
Rating68%
An elderly man at The Shady Rest Retirement Home in East Texas is known to the staff as Sebastian Haff, but claims to be Elvis. He explains that during the 1970s, Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) grew tired of the demands of his fame and switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff (also Campbell). He claims it was Haff who eventually died in 1977, while he, the real Elvis, lived in quiet, happy anonymity and made a living pretending to be himself. After a propane explosion destroyed documentation which was the only proof that he was actually Elvis, he was unable to return to his old lifestyle.
, 27minutesOrigin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Films about families, Medical-themed films, Films about drugs, Documentary films about law, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Documentary films about health care, Films about psychiatry, Films about disabilities
Actors Ossie Davis
Rating70%
Dinosaur (2000)
, 1h19Directed by Ralph Zondag
Origin USA
Genres Adventure, Animation
Themes Films about animals, Dinosaur films, La préhistoire, Animaux préhistoriques, Film d'animation mettant en scène un animal, Musical films, Children's films
Actors D. B. Sweeney, Ossie Davis, Alfre Woodard, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel E. Wright
Roles Yar (voice)
Rating64%
During the end of the Cretaceous era, an Iguanodon mother is forced to abandon her nest during a Carnotaurus attack. The one surviving egg journeys through several predicaments, before ending up on lemur island, where Plio names the hatched baby Aladar and raises him. Years later, Aladar and the lemurs take part in a mating season, where Zini goes without a mate. After the season ends, a meteor strikes and destroys the island, leaving Aladar, Plio, Yar, Zini and Suri, as the only survivors when they swim to the mainland. The family mourns for the loss of all lemurs before moving on.
, 46minutesGenres Fantasy, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Christmas films, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors Michael Crawford, Ossie Davis, Jewel
Roles Caretaker
Rating81%
The songs are presented in such a way as to form a storyline about a runaway who takes refuge in an abandoned theatre on Christmas Eve, and experiences the musical performances as ghostly visions from the theatre's past. Ossie Davis as the caretaker and Allie Sheridan as the runaway, are used to fill out the narrative. The special was filmed at the historic Loew's Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Soul Collector (1999)
, 1h33Genres Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Actors Bruce Greenwood, Melissa Gilbert, Hilary Duff, Ossie Davis, Scotty Leavenworth, Buck Taylor
Roles Mordecai
Rating61%
Zach (Bruce Greenwood) is a soul collector, an angel who collects souls and takes them up to heaven. He is sent to earth to live as a human being for thirty days on a Texas cattle ranch. There, he falls in love with the ranch owner, Rebecca (Melissa Gilbert), a widowed single mother, and he influences the lives of her son and the ranch workers.
Doctor Dolittle (1998)
, 1h25Directed by Betty Thomas
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Fantasy
Themes Films about animals, Children's films
Actors Eddie Murphy, Sandra Bullock, Ossie Davis, Eileen Ryan, Oliver Platt, Candice Bergen
Roles Archer Dolittle
Rating54%
Young John Dolittle talks to his dog (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), who explains dogs sniff each other's butts as a way of greeting, and John does so when meeting his new principal. This behavior concerns his father (Ossie Davis), who hires the local minister to perform an exorcism. When John is scared his dog attacks the minister, and his father gives the dog up for adoption. The incident greatly upsets John and he stops talking to animals.
4 Little Girls (1997)
, 1h42Directed by Spike Lee
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Historical
Themes Films about racism, Films about terrorism, Documentary films about racism, Documentary films about law, Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Documentary films about politics, Documentary films about terrorism, Political films
Actors Ossie Davis, Spike Lee, Bill Cosby, Walter Cronkite
Roles Self - Actor and Playwright
Rating77%
Film documentaire, 4 little girls revient sur l'attentat à la bombe dans une église afro-américaine qui, en 1963, tua quatre fillettes âgées de 11 à 14 ans.
Thomas Jefferson (1997)
, 3hDirected by Ken Burns
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Historical
Themes Documentary films about historical events, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Documentary films about politics, Political films
Actors Blythe Danner, Ossie Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Potts, Sam Waterston, Philip Bosco
Roles Narrator (voice)
Rating78%