Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte
Belafonte in 1983
Background information
Birth name	Harold George Belafonte, Jr.
Born	(1927-03-01) March 1, 1927 New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Calypso, vocal, folk
Occupations	Singer, actor, activist
Years active	1949–2007
Labels	RCA Victor CBS EMI Island

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (originally Belafonete; born March 1, 1927) is an American musician, singer, actor, and social activist. His father was from Martinique; his mother was of Jamaican descent. He is a very successful pop singer. Some call him the "King of Calypso," because he popularized this Caribbean musical style in the 1950s. Belafonte is well known for singing the "Banana Boat Song", with the words "Day-O."

He has worked for civil rights and humanitarian causes. He criticized the policies of George W. Bush. He endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States in 2008 and Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.

Discography

Further information: Harry Belafonte discography

Filmography

• Bright Road (1953)
• Carmen Jones (1954)
• Island in the Sun (1957)
• The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Angel Levine (1970)
• Buck and the Preacher (1972)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
• A veces miro mi vida (1982)
• Drei Lieder (1983) (short subject)
• Sag nein (1983) (documentary)
• Der Schönste Traum (1984) (documentary)
• We Shall Overcome (1989) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Player (1992) (Cameo)
• Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
• Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream (1995)
• White Man's Burden (1995)
• Jazz '34 (1996)
• Kansas City (1996)
• Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998) (documentary)
• Fidel (2001) (documentary)
• XXI Century (2003) (documentary)
• Conakry Kas (2003) (documentary)
• Ladders (2004) (documentary) (narrator)
• Mo & Me (2006) (documentary)
• Bobby (2006)
• Motherland(2009) (documentary)

Television work

• Sugar Hill Times (1949-1950)
• Tonight With Belafonte (1959)
• Petula (1968)
• A World in Music (1969)
• Harry & Lena, For The Love Of Life (1969)
• A World in Love (1970)
• Free to Be… You and Me (1974)
• The Muppet Show (1978)
• Grambling's White Tiger (1981)
• Don't Stop The Carnival (1985)
• An Evening With Harry Belafonte And Friends (1997)
• Swing Vote (1999)
• Tanner on Tanner (2004)
• That's What I'm Talking About (2006) (miniseries)
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) (miniseries)

Stage work

• John Murray Anderson's Almanac (December 10, 1953 - June 26, 1954)
• 3 for Tonight (April 6 - June 18, 1955)
• Moonbirds (October 9 - October 10, 1959) (producer)
• Belafonte at the Palace (December 15, 1959 - closing date unknown)
• Asinamali! (April 23 - May 17, 1987) (producer)

Quotation

“	The sham engineers of the music industry, who steer the wheels of public opinion, are driving the good features of calypso into the ground. I shudder to think what these greedy men will eventually do to this true art form.	”
— NME - May 1957

Other websites

• Harry Belafonte on IMDb
• Harry Belafonte at the Internet Broadway Database
• Harry Belafonte - a site of sites
• Harry Belafonte discography
• 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award - Belafonte's acceptance speech in San Francisco
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
• Democracy Now! transcript/MP3/video of interview by Amy Goodman, January 30, 2006
• The Bigotry of Belafonte - by Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, Oct. 25, 2002
• "The Man Behind Belafonte's Music - Irving Burgie" - by Ronald David Jackson, with video
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• The HistoryMakers Biography and video clips
• Harry Belafonte Appreciation Group on Imeem
• Harry Belafonte: Belafonte At Carnegie Hall
• Belafonte and Nat King Cole sing "Mama Look at Bubu"
• Belafonte: "Iraq & Afghanistan Wars Are Immoral" - video report by Democracy Now!
• Hear Harry Belafonte on the Pop Chronicles