Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and singer. She was the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in Carmen Jones (1954). Dandridge had also performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters, and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles.
Dandridge in a studio publicity portrait, c. 1950s
Los Angeles Examiner front page that highlights Dorothy Dandridge and others
Dandridge with Alain Delon on the set La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo, filmed in 1962 but only released years later with both edited out.
Tuesday, September 7, 1965; Dorothy Kilgallen's show business column states that nightclub Basin Street East would be opening "this Friday" with a Dorothy Dandridge premier engagement.
Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film featuring an African American cast starring Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, and Pearl Bailey and produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Harry Kleiner is based on the lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, from the 1943 stage musical of the same name, set to the music of Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The opera was an adaptation of the 1845 Prosper Mérimée novella Carmen by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
Theatrical release poster by Saul Bass
