GREAT AMERICANS OF JAMAICAN DESCENT - HARRY BELAFONTE Born HAROLD GEORGE BELLANFANTI ; Jr.,[at Lying-in Hospital in Harlem, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper of JAMAICAN descent – and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as a chef in the National Guard From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School[12] after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II In the 1940s, he was working as a janitors assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 08:30:44 +0000
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