Biography
Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 - June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun. Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Do the Right Thing (1989) and American Gangster (2007).
Known For
Complete Filmography
Poitier's Walter Lee
2018
as Self (archive footage)
An interview with film scholar Mia Mask, co-editor of Poitier Revisited.
Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
2014
as Self
In this open-letter style documentary, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis' rich lives guide their grandson on his personal quest to master lasting love, conscious...
Betty and Coretta
2013
as Narrator
The widows of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and how they carry on as single mothers after the assassination of their husbands.
Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal
2013
as Self
The film chronicles the life and revolutionary times of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
A Thousand Words
2012
as Annie McCall
Jack McCall is a fast-talking literary agent, who can close any deal, any time, any way. He has set his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja for his own s...
Video Girl
2011
as Valerie
Lorie Walker is a small town girl whose big dreams of becoming a dancer come true when she becomes a star in the Hip-Hop video world. But she soon lea...
Politics of Love
2011
Politics makes strange bedfellows, but never stranger than when a sexy, savvy, African-American conservative Republican reluctantly falls for his Demo...
The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
2011
as Miss Candy
In this film, childhood friends come face to face with the demons of rock and roll (lust, drugs, and passion) on a cross-country road trip that compel...
A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School
2009
as Narrator (voice)
For a seventy-year period, when America cared little about the education of African-Americans, and discrimination was law and custom, The Bordentown S...
America
2009
as Mrs. Harper
In "America," Dr. Maureen Brennan, a psychiatrist at a youth treatment center, encounters her newest patient, a bi-racial boy named America. Through t...
Steam
2007
as Doris
Three women — a young coed, a forty-something single mother, and one a senior-aged widow — meet in the sauna of the local gym, where they gradually ge...
American Gangster
2007
as Mama Lucas
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American...
All About Us
2007
as Ms. Ella
Two Hollywood filmmakers attempt to find Morgan Freeman in Mississippi and convince him to star in their next movie. When life gets in their way they ...
In the Shadow of Hollywood: Race Movies and the Birth of Black Cinema
2007
as Herself
This documentary captures the sounds and images of a nearly forgotten era in film history when African American filmmakers and studios created “race m...
Our Paul: Remembering Paul Robeson
2007
as Self
A retrospective look at the career of Paul Robeson and his legacy as both an American and a citizen of the world.
Discovering William Greaves
2006
as Self
A documentary on the career of William Greaves, featuring Greaves, his wife and co-producer Louise Archambault, actor Ruby Dee, filmmaker St. Clair Bo...
No. 2
2006
as Nanna Maria
A matriarch organizes a feast with her family, in which she will name her successor. The heart has gone out of Nanna Maria's family. There are no part...
Their Eyes Were Watching God
2005
as Nanny
A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the mor...
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
2004
as Self
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks is a 2003 documentary about the life of Academy Award nominated actress Beah Richards. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, it wo...
TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
2004
as (archive footage)
Discover how television has reflected the African American experience in this retrospective of the medium's first half-century. Actors, writers and hi...
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors wer...
Theater Talk: 'A Raisin in the Sun'
2002
as Self
Panel discussion about the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansbury's "A Raisin in the Sun."
Taking Back Our Town
2001
as Emelda West
A true story about a concerned housewife, Pat Melancon, who tries to block Shintech, a massive Japanese petrochemical conglomerate, from building a pl...
Feast of All Saints
2001
as Elsie Claviere
Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught b...
Finding Buck McHenry
2000
as Mrs. Henry
Jason Ross is an 11-year-old boy whose love for baseball exceeds his talent for the game. When cut from his little league team, Jason's undefeatable s...
A Storm in Summer
2000
as Grandmother
Set in 1969, Abel Shaddick, a crotchety deli owner, has a grudge against virtually everyone in his upstate New York town of Fairview, particularly aga...
The Unfinished Journey
1999
as Narrator (voice)
A short about American life and history produced for the millennium New Year's Eve celebration.
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
1999
as Annie Elizabeth 'Bessie' Delany
Tells the story of Sadie and Bessie Delany, two African-American (they preferred "colored") sisters who both lived past the age of 100. They grew up o...
Baby Geniuses
1999
as Margo
BabyCo is the world's leading manufacturer in baby products. However, what the public doesn't know, is that Drs Kinder and Heep, two of its most brill...
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
1999
as Self
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer, and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic ch...
Passing Glory
1999
as Mommit Porter
A true story of a priest (Andre Braugher) in New Orleans who formed a group of black players and challenged an all-white prep school basketball team i...
A Time To Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner
1998
as Narrator
This intimate, uncannily moving documentary profiles Norma Canner, a pioneer in dance movement therapy, who found in dance a way to help people who ha...
The Wall
1998
as Mrs. Mitchell (segment "The Badge")
The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a sheriff's badge, and an electric guitar. Each item connects th...
Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
1998
as Self
Louis Gossett Jr. takes viewers through a special documentary celebration of the groundbreaking achievements of African-American performers and their ...
A Simple Wish
1997
as Hortence
Murray is a male fairy godmother, and he is trying to help 8-year-old Anabel to fulfil her "simple wish" - that her father Oliver, who is a cab driver...
Sports on the Silver Screen
1997
as Self (archive footage)
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev Schreiber, which looks at sports in cinema from t...
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story
1996
as Indigo
James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excell...
Mr. and Mrs. Loving
1996
as Sophia
A moving and uplifting drama about the effects of interracial marriage in the 1960s. Friends since childhood, and loved by both families, this couple ...
Just Cause
1995
as Evangeline Ferguson
A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific...
Tuesday Morning Ride
1995
as Jennie
Tuesday Morning Ride is based on the short story "A Summer Tragedy" by Arna Bontemps, a Harlem Renaissance writer. Set in the 1930s, the story depicts...
Whitewash
1994
as Grandmother (voice)
When Helene Angel walks home from school with her older brother she is attacked by a street gang and painted white. The effect on Helene and her famil...
The Stand
1994
as Mother Abagail Freemantle
After a deadly plague kills most of the world's population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the othe...
After Goodbye
1993
as Narrator
Award-winning actress Ruby Dee narrates this powerful documentary about the impact of AIDS on the families, friends and members of the acclaimed Turtl...
Cop & ½
1993
as Rachel
When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, ...
The Ernest Green Story
1993
as Lydia Wilson
Follows the story of Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine who were the first blacks to integrate into an all white school.
Color Adjustment
1992
as Narrator
From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, black people have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving cl...
Jazztime Tale
1991
as Narrator (voice)
Family - Set in Harlem in 1919, two girls - one white, one black - form a lifelong friendship through a chance encounter and the jazztime music of you...
Jungle Fever
1991
as Lucinda Purify
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference wo...
Decoration Day
1990
as Rowena
A cantankerous widower (Garner) who is virtually living the life of a recluse is forced to rejoin his community when his Godchild (Skaggs) gets in tro...
The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson
1990
as Jackie's Mother
A film about the early life of the baseball star in the army, particulary his court-martial for insubordination regarding segragation.
Love at Large
1990
as Corrine Dart
Inept private investigator Harry Dobbs meets vampish new client Miss Dolan, who wants him to follow her abusive lover. But Dobbs sets about tailing a ...
Zora is My Name!
1990
as Zora Neale Hurston
A celebration of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, who was born at the turn of the 20th Century and grew to be an important voice with her written portr...
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
1989
as Self
The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
Do the Right Thing
1989
as Mother Sister
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzer...
Go Tell It on the Mountain
1985
as Mrs. Grimes
This film adaptation of James Baldwin's celebrated novel tells the journey of a family from the rural South to "big city" Harlem seeking both salvatio...
Papua New Guinea: Anthropology on Trial
1983
Vocals
"Papua New Guinea: Anthropology on Trial" was a 1983 episode of the PBS science documentary series NOVA. It explored the field of anthropology, partic...
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1982
as Mary Tyrone
Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness...
Cat People
1982
as Female
After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is draw...
All God's Children
1980
as Irene Whitfield
Big city judge Parke Denison is involved in a forced busing dispute at the climax of his long career. The friendship between two families -- one white...
The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six
1980
In 1963 a group of young Black boys living in Harlem were involved in an incident that earned them the nickname "The Harlem Six." Intent on protecting...
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1979
as Grandmother Baxter
Based on writer Maya Angelou's eloquent reminiscences of her days as a gifted youngster growing up in the South during the Depression years where she ...
Countdown at Kusini
1976
as Leah Matanzima
An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa.
Wedding Band
1974
as Julia Augustine
A drama which examines the enduring nature of love between a white man and a black woman in 1918 South Carolina.
It's Good to Be Alive
1974
as Ruth Campanella
This movie details the struggles of former Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella to adapt to life in a wheelchair following his crippling automobile ...
Black Girl
1972
as Netta's mother
An aspiring dancer and her two wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter.
Buck and the Preacher
1972
as Ruth
A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
1972
as Lorraine Hansberry and other assorted characters
A mosaic biopic on Lorraine Hansberry, based on the stage play combining her unpublished writings, letters, and diaries.
On Merit
1972
as Narrator (voice)
Examines the history and purpose of the "merit system" used by the U.S. Civil Service in hiring and promoting Federal Government workers. Shows how th...
The Sheriff
1971
as Sue Ann Lucas
A rape case opens racial divisions in a small town. A black sheriff and his white deputy investigate allegations that a wealthy white businessman rape...
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970
as Self (archive footage)
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the documentary follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activi...
Deadlock
1969
as Lucinda
The murder of a journalist, coming shortly after the killings of a black teenager and a white cop, threatens to inflame passions in the city. To preve...
Uptight
1968
as Laurie
Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.
Uptight
1968
Writer
Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.
The Incident
1967
as Joan Robinson
Two hoodlums terrorize the passengers of a late-night New York City subway train.
Neighbours
1966
as Vicky Kingsbury
The Robinson's like to see themselves as liberals. So when their new black neighbours the Kingsbury's move into their apartment block they are invited...
Gone Are the Days!
1963
as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins
A young, idealistic man returns home to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. With him, he brings his fiance, Lutiebelle, in hopes of convinci...
The Balcony
1963
as Thief
The Madam of a brothel satisfies the erotic fantasies of her customers, while a revolution is sweeping the nation. Preserved by the Academy Film Arch...
A Raisin in the Sun
1961
as Ruth Younger
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like a...
Take a Giant Step
1959
as Christine
This pioneering film in the history of African-American cinema, released two years before "A Raisin In The Sun", is the coming-of-age story of a Black...
Virgin Island
1959
as Ruth
A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.
St. Louis Blues
1958
as Elizabeth
Will Handy grows up in Memphis with his preacher father and his Aunt Hagar. His father intends for him to use his musical gifts only in church, but he...
Edge of the City
1957
as Lucy Tyler
An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager.
Go Man Go
1954
as Irma Jackson
The story of Abe Saperstein and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters.
The Tall Target
1951
as Rachel
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.
No Way Out
1950
as Connie Brooks (uncredited)
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
The Jackie Robinson Story
1950
as Rae Robinson
Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major l...
The Fight Never Ends
1948
Joe Louis, portraying himself, is a good influence on a group of Harlem youths who are tempted to "go bad" by a gangster known as Caper, an older brot...
What a Guy
1948
Mantan Moreland's comedy feature.
Easy to Get
1947
as Drugstore Girl
U.S. Army training film about avoiding venereal disease, intended primarily for Black servicemen.
Love in Syncopation
1946
Follows the band's rise in show business, starting with its origins in the Navy during World War II and their struggle to make it.
That Man of Mine
1946
as Joan
Featuring the swinging sounds of the all-woman band The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and a young Ruby Dee, the 1946 musical showcases tendernes...