STAR TO HEAVEN

Actress Ruby Dee Dies at 91

Wife of Ossie Davis.

Veteran actress Ruby Dee, who was known for landing leading roles in movies and on Broadway despite segregation-era stereotypes, died Wednesday at the age of 91. Dee, who emceed the 1963 March on Washington, was a vocal advocate for racial equality in the arts. “I’m sick of being offered scripts about hookers or goody-good nurses!” she told a reporter in 1970. “Black women fall in love and have adventures and secrets and are just as driven and gutsy as a lot of white ladies in middle America.” Dee’s marriage to actor and playwright Ossie Davis—with whom she co-starred in Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever—lasted 56 years, until his death in 2005. The cause of Dee’s death was not disclosed.