I'm a lasagna boy!

I got it, I'm gone.

Raiford Chatman Davis, known to the world as one half of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, died today.

From the AP:

Ossie Davis, Actor, Is Dead at 87
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 4, 2005

Filed at 11:11 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ossie Davis, whose rich baritone and elegant, unshakable bearing made him a giant of the stage, screen and the civil rights movement -- often in tandem with his wife, Ruby Dee -- has died. He was 87.

Davis was found dead Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Fla., according to officials there. He was making a film, ``Retirement,'' said Arminda Thomas, who works in his New Rochelle office and confirmed the death.

Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said Davis' grandson called shortly before 7 a.m. when Davis would not open the door to his room at the Shore Club Hotel. Davis was found dead, apparently of natural causes, Hernandez said.

Davis wrote, acted, directed and produced for the theater and Hollywood. Even light fare such as the comedy ``Grumpy Old Men'' with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau was somehow enriched by his strong, but gentle presence. Davis and Dee celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1998 with the publication of a dual autobiography, ``With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together.''

Their partnership rivaled the achievements of other celebrated performing couples, such as Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Davis and Dee first appeared together in the plays ``Jeb,'' in 1946, and ``Anna Lucasta,'' in 1946-47. Davis' first film, ``No Way Out'' in 1950, was Dee's fifth.

Both had key roles in the TV series ``Roots: The Next Generation'' (1978), ``Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum'' (1986) and ``The Stand'' (1994). Davis appeared in several Spike Lee films, including ``Do the Right Thing'' and ``Jungle Fever,'' in which Dee also appeared.

Davis had a guest role as the father of two women characters in Showtime's dramatic series, ``The L Word.'' He appeared in one episode in the first season, then returned for three episodes for the season about to begin, where his character takes ill and dies.

``We knew that we were working with a powerful, important actor,'' executive producer Ilene Chaiken said Friday. ``Ruby Dee sat with me and watched as he filmed his death scene. It was extraordinary.''

Among Davis' more notable Broadway appearances was his portrayal of the title character in ``Purlie Victorious'' (1961), a comedy he wrote lampooning racial stereotypes. In it, he played a conniving preacher who sets out to buy a church in rural Georgia. In 1970, Davis co-wrote the book for ``Purlie,'' a musical version of the play. A revival of the musical is planned for Broadway next season.

``He's my hero,'' actor Alan Alda, who appeared in ``Purlie Victorious,'' wrote in e-mail to The Associated Press. ``I am sorry for his family and for all of us who have benefited from ... his art and from his service to his country.''

Actors' Equity Association issued a statement Friday calling Davis ``an icon in the American theater'' and he and Dee ``American treasures.'' House lights for Broadway marquees were to be dimmed Friday at curtain time.

In 2004, Davis and Dee were among the artists selected to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.

``His greatness as a human being went far beyond his excellence as an actor,'' former New York Governor Mario Cuomo said Friday. ``Ossie was a citizen of the country, first, and the world. He and his wife were activists and they took it seriously.''

Dee was in New Zealand making a movie at the time of Davis' death, said his agent, Michael Livingston.

When not on stage or on 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.''

Davis directed several films, most notably ``Cotton Comes to Harlem'' (1970). Other films include ``The Cardinal'' (1963), ``The Client'' (1994) and ``I'm Not Rappaport'' (1996), a reprise of his stage role 10 years earlier.

On TV, he appeared in ``The Emperor Jones'' (1955), ``Miss Evers' Boys'' (1997) and ``Twelve Angry Men'' (1997). He was a cast member on ``The Defenders'' from 1963-65, and ``Evening Shade'' from 1990-94, among other shows.

``Since the loss of my father, no man has come close to represent the kind of man I hope to be some day,'' said Burt Reynolds, Davis' ``Evening Shade'' co-star. ``I know he's sitting next to God now, and I know God envies that voice.''

Davis had just started his new movie on Monday, Livingston said. ``Retirement,'' a comedy about an elderly group of friends, also starred Jack Warden, Peter Falk and George Segal.

The oldest of five children, Davis was born in tiny Cogdell, Ga., in 1917, and grew up in nearby Waycross and Valdosta. He left home in 1935, hitchhiking to Washington, D.C., to enter Howard University, where he studied drama, intending to be a playwright.

His career as an actor began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. After the outbreak of World War II, Davis spent nearly four years in service, mainly as a surgical technician in an Army hospital in Liberia, serving both wounded troops and local inhabitants.

Back in New York in 1946, he debuted on Broadway in ``Jeb,'' a play about a returning soldier. His co-star was Dee. In December 1948, on a day off from rehearsals from another play, they took a bus to New Jersey to get married.

As black performers, they found themselves caught up in the social unrest of the then-new Cold War. In one instance, Davis stood by singer Paul Robeson even as others denounced him for his openly communist sympathies. ``We young ones in the theater, trying to fathom even as we followed, were pulled this way and that by the swirling currents of these new dimensions of the Struggle,'' Davis wrote.

Besides Dee, Davis is survived by three children Nora, Hasna and Guy, a blues artist, and seven grandchildren.

      Always do the right thing.

From the New York Times:

February 5, 2005

Ossie Davis, Actor, Writer and Eloquent Champion of Racial Justice, Dies at 87
By RICHARD SEVERO and DOUGLAS MARTIN

Ossie Davis, the imposing, deep-voiced actor who with his wife and acting partner, Ruby Dee, helped widen horizons for blacks on stage and screen while fighting zealously for civil rights from Washington to Hollywood, died yesterday in Miami. He was 87.

His son, Guy, said Mr. Davis was found dead at a hotel. He said that the cause had not been determined, but that his father had a history of heart problems and had recently recovered from pneumonia.

Mr. Davis initially intended to be a writer, but his fame came from his incisive and wide-ranging acting performances over five decades, even as he wrote plays and screenplays and directed and produced in both media. So many of his performances were with Ms. Dee - 11 stage productions and five movies during long parallel careers - that the two have been compared with the Lunts or Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.

Together they helped pave the road for two generations of black performers, Sean Combs said when the couple was honored at the Kennedy Center in December. Mr. Davis replied: "We knew that every time we got a job and every time we were onstage, America was looking to make judgments about all black folks on the basis of how you looked, how you sounded, how you carried yourself. So any role you had was a role that was involved in the struggle for black identification. You couldn't escape it."

Lloyd Richards, who directed plays involving both actors from their earliest days in New York, said in an interview yesterday that they were part of a large evolution by blacks from the roles of "maids, butlers or some such" to considerably more varied fare. "You could not be exposed to Ossie and not be affected by him," Mr. Richards said.

Last night, before curtains rose at 8, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights in Mr. Davis's honor.

Mr. Davis and Ms. Dee first performed together in the plays "Jeb" in 1946, and "Anna Lucasta" in 1946-47; Mr. Davis's first film, "No Way Out," in 1950, was Ms. Dee's fifth.

Both had significant roles on television in "Roots: The Next Generation" (1978), "Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum" (1986) and "The Stand" (1994).

The two also fought in broader arenas. They helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and were master and mistress of ceremonies.

At a news conference in Manhattan yesterday, Harry Belafonte, with tears in his eyes, compared Mr. Davis to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Paul Robeson, W. E .B. DuBois and Fanny Lou Hamer, all of whom were Mr. Davis's friends. In particular, Mr. Davis remained fiercely loyal to Robeson even as he was denounced by other show-business figures for his openly Communist sympathies.

In 1965, Mr. Davis delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X, calling him "our shining black prince," and he spoke it again in a voiceover for the 1992 Spike Lee film, "Malcolm X." In 1968, he eulogized Dr. King.

It was partly through Spike Lee movies that Mr. Davis and Ms. Dee became known to a new generation. Mr. Davis appeared in Mr. Lee's "School Daze," "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever." Ms. Dee appeared in the latter two.

Early in their careers, Mr. Davis co-starred with Ms. Dee when, on Aug. 31, 1959, he took over from Sidney Poitier the role of Walter Lee in "A Raisin in the Sun, " the hit drama about the aspirations of a black family. (Ms. Dee created the role of his wife, Ruth.) It was written by Lorraine Hansberry and directed by Mr. Richards, and is often seen as a milestone in drama by and about blacks.

Mr. Davis never stopped working, his son recalled, adding that he used his waiting time on the set to write plays on his laptop computer. In 1996, he recreated a 1986-87 stage role in the movie "I'm Not Rappaport," and in 1997 he appeared on television in "Miss Evers' Boys" and "Twelve Angry Men."

Raiford Chatman Davis was born on Dec. 18, 1917, in Cogdell, Ga. He was the oldest of five children of Kince Charles Davis and the former Laura Cooper.

He became Ossie when his mother told the courthouse clerk in Clinch River, Ga., who was filing his birth certificate that his name was "R. C. Davis." The clerk thought she had said, "Ossie Davis," and she was not about to argue with a white person.

He grew up in Waycross, Ga., where one of his earliest memories was bigots' harassing his father because his occupation was considered a bit sophisticated for blacks at that time. His father planned and supervised the building of railroads.

A member of the Ku Klux Klan threatened to shoot his father "like a dog." Ossie said that thinking about this inspired him to become a writer.

Despite this early consciousness of racism, Mr. Davis remarked in his adulthood that his favorite movie actor as a child was Tom Mix, the cowboy star, who was white. A happy memory was growing up in a family of preachers and storytellers, and he said that early on he learned to think of the church as theater.

During the Depression his father lost his job and eked out a living selling homemade herbal medicines. Ossie found solace from poverty in school, where he developed a passion for reading Shakespeare.

In 1935, after his high school graduation, Mr. Davis set off to hitchhike from Waycross to Washington, where he stayed with his mother's two sisters; his mother had sewed a $10 bill into his underwear.

With the aid of a National Youth Administration Scholarship and a library job, he entered Howard University, where he encountered the likes of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen in a course on black literature. He fell under the wing of Dr. Alain Locke, a philosophy professor whom American Visions magazine in 1992 called "midwife to a generation of younger artists, writers and poets." Dr. Locke urged Mr. Davis to learn more about the theater.

The student acted on his advice, perhaps more hastily than the professor had intended him to. He dropped out of Howard at the end of his junior year and moved to New York. He later said that he believed college was a place to "learn to spell and where the commas go," and that since he had mastered those things, there was no reason to remain.

He joined the Rose McClendon Players, a little theater group in Harlem, in order to learn more about plays, which he hoped to write himself. He swept floors, painted sets and sometimes acted in plays performed in church basements and union halls. He was occasionally reduced to sleeping on a park bench, but he mingled with the intellectual giants of black America, including Richard Wright, DuBois and A. Philip Randolph.

While still in high school, Mr. Davis had dreamed of joining Ethiopia's struggle against Mussolini, although he confessed he was not sure where Ethiopia was. He had a brief flirtation with the Young Communist League, which he said ended when he was drafted into the Army in 1942. He spent much of World War II as a surgical technician in an Army hospital in Liberia, where he served both troops and local inhabitants.

After his discharge in 1945, Mr. Davis returned to Georgia but was soon approached by Richard Campbell, who urged Mr. Davis to audition for the title role in "Jeb," a play about a Purple Heart winner who returned to Louisiana and is thwarted by racism in his efforts to find work. The play ran less than two weeks on Broadway, but critics were impressed with Mr. Davis.

More importantly, the young actress playing the female lead could not get the Southern accent right. So the understudy, who knew all the lines, Ruby Dee, took over. She and Mr. Davis had previously appeared in different productions of the same play, "On Strivers Row," in 1940, but had never met.

Ms. Dee said in an interview with CBS News last year that her first impression was that Mr. Davis was "a country bumpkin." But it was the beginning of a spectacular personal and professional collaboration. In December 1948, they took the day off from rehearsals for another play, "The Smile of the World," and rode a bus to New Jersey to be married.

In addition to his wife and his son, Guy, of the Bronx, Mr. Davis is survived by his daughters, Nora Day of Montclair, N.J., and Hasna Muhammad of Brewster, N.Y.; a brother, William, of San Antonio; and seven grandchildren.

One of Mr. Davis's best-known works was "Purlie Victorious," which used comical stereotypes to make stinging points abut racism. Mr. Davis wrote the play and played the title character, a preacher trying to open an integrated church in an old barn.

In 1999, the reference book Contemporary Southern Writers said it offered "a brilliant exploration of how archetypes and stereotypes can be overstated to the point of absurdity."

Mr. Davis repeated his role in the 1963 film version, titled "Gone Are the Days." It was at first unsuccessful at the box office, but it was re-released with the title of the play under the sponsorship of Paul Newman, Fredric March and other celebrities.

In 1970, "Purlie" was made into a hit musical, propelled in part by Melba Moore's performance and a strong score. From March 31 to April 3, the musical version will be staged in concert as part of the "Encores!" series at City Center in Manhattan.

What may be have been Mr. Davis's last interview will be broadcast on Feb. 21, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, on "Tavis Smiley," the PBS show. Mr. Smiley asked Mr. Davis how he had prepared himself to deliver eulogies for Malcolm X and for Dr. King.

He answered, "The first thing, I should think, would be to sit quietly for as long as it takes and think long thoughts about the subject."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company