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A Raisin In The Sun
''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of their father, and deals with matters of housing discrimination, racism, and assimilation. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such as ''The Independent'' and '' Time Out'' have listed it among the best plays ever written. Plot Walter and Ruth Younger, and their son Travis, along with Walter's mother Lena (Mama) and younger sister Beneatha, live in poverty in a run-down two-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Side. Walter is barely making a living as a limousine driver. Though Ruth is content with their lot, Walter desperately wishes for more. He hopes to invest i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the following decades, a series of acquisitions made it into one of the largest publishers in the United States. In 2013, it was merged with Penguin Group to form Penguin Random House, which is owned by the Germany-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Penguin Random House uses its brand for Random House Publishing Group and Random House Children's Books, as well as several imprints. Company history 20th century Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random", which suggested the name Random ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert B
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown, godlike" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin.Reaney & Wilson, 1997. ''Dictionary of English Surnames''. Oxford University Press. It is also in use Robert (surname), as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert (name), Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe, the name entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta (given name), Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto (given name), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Sands
Diana Patricia Sands (August 22, 1934September 21, 1973) was an American actress, perhaps most known for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger, the sister of Sidney Poitier's character, Walter, in the original stage and film versions of Lorraine Hansberry's ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959). Sands also appeared in a number of dramatic television series in the 1960s and 1970s such as Dr. Julia Harrison in the 1964 ''The Outer Limits (1963 TV series), Outer Limits'' episode "The Mice (The Outer Limits), The Mice", the 1965-1968 series ''I Spy (1965 TV series), I Spy'', as Davala Unawa in the 1967 ''The Fugitive (1963 TV series), The Fugitive'' episode "Dossier on a Diplomat", and the 1968 series ''Julia (1968 TV series), Julia''. Sands also starred in the 1963 film ''An Affair of the Skin'' as the narrator and photographer, Janice. She was twice nominated for a Tony Award and twice nominated for an Emmy Award. Biography Early life and education Diana Patricia Sands was born one of three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudia McNeil
Claudia Mae McNeil (August 13, 1917 – November 25, 1993) was an American actress known for premiering the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both the stage and screen productions of ''A Raisin in the Sun''. She later appeared in a 1981 production of the musical version of the play, ''Raisin'' presented by Equity Library Theater. She was twice nominated for a Tony Award, first for her onstage performance in ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959), and again for the play '' Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright'' in 1962. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for the screen version of ''A Raisin in the Sun'' in 1961. Life and career McNeil was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Marvin Spencer McNeil, who was black, and Annie Mae (Anderson) McNeil, an Apache woman. The family moved to New York City soon after her birth. She was raised by her mother after her father left the family. At the age of 12, McNeil began working for The Heckscher Foundation for Children. There she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Gossett Jr
Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * Derived terms * King Louis (other) * Saint Louis (other) * Louis Cruise Lines * Louis dressing, for salad * Louis Quinze, design style Associated terms * Lewis (other) * Louie (other) * Luis (other) * Louise (other) * Louisville (other) Associated names * * Chlodwig, the origin of the name Ludwig, which is translated to English as "Louis" * Ladislav and László - names sometimes erroneously associated with "Louis" * Ludovic, Ludwig, Ludwick, Ludwik Ludwik () is a Polish given name. Notable people with the name include: * Ludwik Czyżewski, Polish WWII general * Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961), Polish medical doctor and biologist * Ludwik Gintel (1899–1973), Polish-Isra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fiedler
John Donald Fiedler (February 3, 1925 – June 25, 2005) was an American actor. Recognizable for his high, flutey voice, Fiedler's career lasted more than 55 years in stage, film, television and radio. Fiedler was typecast beginning early in his career for delicate, quiet, nerdy characters, although he also played sneaky villains. His roles include the meek Juror No. 2 in '' 12 Angry Men'' (1957); the seemingly benign gentleman who tries to prevent the Younger family from moving into a whites-only neighborhood in ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (1961); the voice of Piglet in Disney's ''Winnie the Pooh'' productions; Vinnie, one of Oscar's poker cronies, in the film '' The Odd Couple'' (1968); and Emil Peterson, the hen-pecked milquetoast husband on ''The Bob Newhart Show''. Early life Fiedler was born in Platteville, Wisconsin, a son of beer salesman Donald Fiedler and his wife Margaret (née Phelan). He was of German and Irish descent. His family moved to Shorewood, Wiscon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lonne Elder III
Lonne Elder III (December 26, 1927 – June 11, 1996) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Elder was one of the leading African-American figures who informed the New York theater world with social and political consciousness. He also wrote scripts for television and film. His best known play, ''Ceremonies in Dark Old Men'', won him a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The play, which was about a Harlem barber and his family, was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969. In 1973, Elder and Suzanne de Passe (who co-wrote '' Lady Sings the Blues'') became the first African Americans to be nominated for the Academy Award in writing. Elder received the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for the movie '' Sounder'', starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, and Kevin Hooks and directed by Martin Ritt. Early life Born in Americus, Georgia, to Lonne Elder II and Quincy Elder, Elder grew up in impoverished condit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Dixon
Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April 6, 1931 – March 16, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom ''Hogan's Heroes'', and for his starring roles in the 1964 independent drama '' Nothing But a Man'' and the 1967 television film ''The Final War of Olly Winter''. In addition, he directed many episodes of television series. Active in the civil rights movement from 1961, Dixon served as a president of Negro Actors for Action. Early life and education Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, the son of a grocery store owner and his wife, who together later owned a bakery. His parents separated when he was young, and he lived at his mother's apartment while working in his father's grocery store. His father, also named Ivan, fought with distinction in World War I and read Yiddish. When he was young, the family lived in a brownstone at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same bloc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee (born Ruby Ann Wallace; October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress. She was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005. She received numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Obie Award, and a Drama Desk Award, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1995, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2000, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. Dee started her career with the American Negro Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in '' South Pacific'' (1943). She met her future husband working together on the play '' Jeb'' (1946). She originated the Broadway roles of Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959) and reprised the role in the 1961 film and Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins in the Ossie Davis play '' Purlie Victorious'' (1961) and reprised the role in the 1963 film. She made her film debut in '' T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his other accolades are two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Awards, Tony Award. In 1999, he was ranked among the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, American Film Institute's 100 Stars". Poitier was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Poitier's family lived in the Bahamas, then still a Crown colony, but he was born in Miami, Florida, while they were visiting, which granted him U.S. citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to Miami at age 15, and to New York City when he was 16. He joined the American Negro Theatre, gaining his breakthrough film role as a high school student in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd Richards
Lloyd George Richards (June 29, 1919 – June 29, 2006) was a Canadian-American theatre director, and actor. While head of the National Playwrights Conference, he helped cultivate many of the most famous theater writers of the 20th century. He was also the dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991 (later Professor Emeritus), and was the first Black director on Broadway. Biography Richards was born in Toronto, Ontario, but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. His father, a Jamaican carpenter turned auto-industry worker, died of an infection when Richards was nine years old. Four years later, in 1932, his mother would go blind. He and his brother Allan kept the family together. He later went on to study law at Wayne State University where instead he found his way in theatrical arts after a brief break during World War II while serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Among Richards' accomplishments are his staging the original production of Lorraine Hansberry's ''A Raisin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 and designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco. The Belasco Theatre has 1,016 seats across three levels and has been operated by The Shubert Organization since 1948. Both the facade and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks. The main facade on 44th Street is made of red brick in Flemish bond, with terracotta decorative elements. The ground floor contains the entrance, while the upper stories are asymmetrical and topped by a pediment. Belasco and his company had their offices in the western wing of the theater. A ten-room duplex penthouse apartment occupies the top of the eastern wing and contained Belasco's collection of memorabilia. The interior features Tiffany lighting and ceiling p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
