Before Beyonce and Jay Z, before Barack and Michelle, before Will and Jada, Courtney Vance and Angela Bassett, Ike and Tina Turner, and even before Coz and his resilient wife Camille, there were these two: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee! Even saying their names feels like I'm telling a love story in the truest sense like their names are really one long name, for they are just this singularly dynamic entity that has been / will be around forever.
The first time I ever saw them in a film together, I must confess, they were already in the twilight of their careers. It was in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. Mostly, I'd seen them in separate works. Ossie was in, well, everything (black), it seemed. And Ruby in, well, everything else (black), it seemed.
Between 1946 and 2013, Dee appeared in more than a hundred films, plays, and television shows, "but," as Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker put it, "her legacy can be only partially understood through her credits. Dee, along with Ossie Davis, her husband of fifty-seven years, was an actor—in both meanings of the word—during the civil rights movement. She was in the generation of artists, few of whom remain among us, whose work served as a brief for the ideal of racial equality and who formed part of the cultural front of the era."
When not on stage or camera, Davis and Dee were deeply involved in civil rights issues and efforts to promote the cause of blacks in the entertainment industry. In 1963, Davis participated in the landmark March on Washington. Two years later, he delivered a memorable eulogy for his slain friend, Malcolm X, whom Davis praised as “our own black shining prince” and “our living, black manhood!”
“In honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves,” said Davis, who reprised his eulogy in a voice-over for the 1992 Spike Lee film, “Malcolm X.”
If it had to do with blackness, they were always around. My faves were Ruby and Sidney Poitier in both "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Buck and the Preacher" and Ossie in "Get on the Bus" and "Do the Right Thing" as "Da Mayor."
I could go on and on about these two. They've done more movies, TV, radio, and stage than most people will ever even dream of. And I haven't even seen most of their work. But I will!
So, for Valentine's Day, I wanted to pay a little homage to Ossie and Ruby. Thank you so much for all the love you've put into your relationship and into your work. It pours off the screen every time I see you guys!
Here's a lovely interview with the two of them from 1981
Have a happy Valentine's Day!
Miki and I have our little creative partnership cooked up over here in Japan. Peep our manifesto of art and literature called Words by Baye, Art by Miki here:
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