Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (né Belafonete; born March 1, 1927), is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the " . .   Expand    Wikipedia

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (né Belafonete; born March 1, 1927), is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso," a title which he was very reluctant to accept (according to the documentary Calypso Dreams) for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the Bush Administration. Born Harold George Belafonete, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital, New York City, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love), a housekeeper, and Harold George Belafonete, Sr., a Jamaican who worked as chef in the Royal Navy. From 1935 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in the village of Aboukir in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. 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 revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.

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