Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was the first Black woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress — for her role in Carmen Jones (1954) — and one of the most beautiful and talented performers of her generation. Hollywood wanted her face but not her full humanity: she was offered only roles that traded on her beauty while denying her the complex dramatic parts given to white actresses. The entertainment industry used her, and then it discarded her.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 9, 1922, Dandridge began performing as a child with her sister in a group called The Wonder Children. She appeared in films throughout the 1940s but was consistently limited to small or stereotypical roles. Carmen Jones changed everything — her performance was electrifying, and the Oscar nomination seemed to signal that Hollywood was ready to accept a Black leading lady.

It wasn't. After Carmen Jones, Dandridge struggled to find worthy roles. She starred in Island in the Sun (1957), which was controversial because of its interracial romance, and Porgy and Bess (1959), but the parts that could have defined an era never came. She experienced financial difficulties, personal tragedies, and the particular cruelty of an industry that saw her as a novelty rather than an artist. She joined the ancestors on September 8, 1965, at just 42 years old. Halle Berry, accepting her Oscar in 2002, named Dandridge first among the women whose shoulders she stood on.