African-American actress Ruby Dee has found success on the stage, the big screen and on television. She gave groundbreaking performances in films such as Take a Giant Step (1959) and A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and over the years, she has earned six Emmy nominations. Along with her professional achievements, Dee's personal life has been just as noteworthy. She was married for almost sixty years to actor/writer/director Ossie Davis. And with Davis at her side, Dee has been a tireless activist and civil rights supporter. She is also a breast cancer survivor of over thirty years.

She was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio on October 27, 1924. Her mother was a teacher and her father a train porter. The family moved to Harlem when Dee was quite young. There, influenced by the energy and creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, she developed an interest in theatre. She began studying at the American Negro Theatre in 1941 and while attending New York's Hunter College, Dee made her stage debut in 1943, appearing in the drama South Pacific (no relation to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical). Dee would graduate from Hunter College in 1945 with degrees in French and Spanish.

From 1944 to 1946, Dee played the title role in the American Negro Theatre's production of Anna Lucasta. It was here that she met Ossie Davis. The couple fell in love while touring the country with Anna Lucasta. They married December 9, 1948.

Dee made her movie debut in 1950 in two films: The Jackie Robinson Story, a biopic that featured Robinson playing himself, with Dee receiving second billing; and No Way Out, a racial-crime drama starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. Dee and husband Davis both appeared uncredited in the film. Next, Dee appeared as a slave in the Lincoln assassination drama The Tall Target (1951).

Dee was frequently cast as the girlfriend in stories of famous African-Americans. Go, Man, Go! (1954), the story of the Harlem Globetrotters, featured Dee as one of the player's love interests. Likewise, in St. Louis Blues (1958) she played 'Father of the Blues' W.C. Handy's girl. Finally, with Take a Giant Step, Dee got the chance to mix it up a bit. In the coming-of-age story, she was once again cast as a romantic interest, but this time she played the older woman.

Co-star Sidney Poitier was another recurring theme in Dee's career. The two have made six films together (already mentioned were No Way Out and Go, Man, Go!). Edge of the City (1957) was a drama about racism among railroad workers. The romantic drama Virgin Island (1958) also starred John Cassavetes. In 1961, Dee and Poitier recreated their Broadway roles in a screen adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's Pulitzer Prize winning A Raisin in the Sun (1961).

Another stage role and film adaptation would follow – this time written by her husband. The play Purlie Victorious, a Deep South comedy set on a plantation, ran from 1961-62. Dee would once again take her stage role to the screen in the 1963 adaptation which was retitled Gone Are the Days. Dee rounded out the 1960s with the tense urban drama The Incident (1967) and Up Tight (1968), a remake of John Ford's The Informer (1935) which transposed its original world of IRA intrigue to the days immediately following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Dee played a prostitute in Up Tight and received co-producer credit on the film.

The 1970s ushered in Dee's sixth film with Sidney Poitier, Buck and the Preacher (1972). The western also starred Harry Belafonte. In Black Girl (1972) Dee was directed by her husband. The two worked together again (this time with Davis writing and directing) on Countdown at Kusini (1976), a story of revolution set in a fictional African country.

Dee appeared in a number of television shows over the course of her career including The Fugitive, The Guiding Light and Peyton Place. She also had a role in the Alex Haley mini-series Roots: The Next Generations (1979) and she starred in a number of well regarded TV movies, such as: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979), based on the book by Maya Angelou; the Eugene O'Neill adaptation Long Day's Journey Into Night (1982); and The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990) where, forty years after she played Robinson's wife in The Jackie Robinson Story, she would play his mother. Dee won her first Emmy Award for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Decoration Day (1990).

In 2004 Dee and Davis were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. They also co-wrote an autobiography called With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. The book relates stories of their careers, family life and years as activists. In 2007, the audio version of their book earned a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Ossie Davis died on February 4, 2005. Ruby Dee continues to work in film and on television. Her most recent efforts include the Oprah Winfrey produced TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) based on a Zora Neale Hurston novel and starring Halle Berry.

by Stephanie Thames