From the Hollywood Reporter: “Harry Belafonte, Singer, Actor, Producer and Activist, Dies at 96“
Harry Belafonte, the actor, producer, singer and activist who made calypso music a national phenomenon with “Day-O” (The Banana Boat Song) and used his considerable stardom to draw attention to Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights issues and injustices around the world, has died. He was 96.
Belafonte, recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home on the Upper West Side with his wife, Pamela, by his side, longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine told The Hollywood Reporter.
A master at blending pop, jazz and traditional West Indian rhythms, the Caribbean-American Belafonte released more than 30 albums during his career and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy from the Recording Academy in 2000.
Calypso, which featured “Day-O” and another hit, “Jamaica Farewell,” topped the Billboard pop album list for an incredible 31 weeks in 1956 and is credited as the first LP to sell 1 million copies. It was one of three albums he had that year that made it into the top 3.
On the big screen in the late 1950s, Belafonte was a matinee idol and rarely seen non-white sex symbol.
Jimmy Buffett did a cover of Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell” which appeared on the Feeding Frenzy live album back in 1990.