Jack Rollins , his manager helped him develop a number that emphasized his acting ability and striking good looks as much as a voice that was raspy and expressive but , as Mr Belafonte admitted , not very powerful . A triumphant performance in 1951 at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village led to an even more successful gig at the Blue Angel , the Vanguard ' s upscale sister room on the Upper East Side . This in turn led to a recording contract with RCA and a Broadway role in the 1953 revue " John Murray Anderson ' s Almanac ". Performing repertoire that included the calypso standard " Hold ' em Joe " and its arrangement of the folkloric song folkloric " Mark Twain ", Mr . Belafonte received rave reviews , television appearances and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical . It also caught the attention of Hollywood producer and director Otto Preminger , who incorporated it into the 1954 film version " Carmen Jones ," an all-black update of Bizet ' s opera " Carmen " with lyrics from ' Oscar Hammerstein II , who had been a hit on Broadway a decade earlier . Mr Belafonte ' s co-star was Dorothy Dandridge , with whom he had also appeared the previous year in his film debut , the little-seen low-budget drama ' Bright Road '. Although they are both accomplished singers , their singing voices in " Carmen Jones " were dubbed by opera singers . Mr Belafonte also made headlines for a film he turned down , citing what he called negative racial stereotypes : the 1959 screen version of " Porgy and Bess ", also a film by Primer . The role of Porgy was instead o ered to his old friend M . Poitier , whom he publicly criticized for accepting it . Belafonte later said the decision " helped fuel the rebellious spirit " growing within him , a spirit he turned into a life of activism , using his newfound wealth to fund various initiatives . Having long benefited from the mentorship of actor Paul Robeson , who had had a di cult history with racist Hollywood , he freed Pastor King from a prison in Birmingham , Alabama , in 1963 , as well as coorganizing the march on Washington that culminated in King ' s " I have a dream " speech . He also funded the Freedom Riders and SNCC , activists fighting racial segregation in the American South , and worked on voter registration campaigns .
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Flashmag ! issue 140 April 2023
He then focused on a series of African initiatives . He organized the All-Star We Are the World charity record , raising more than $ 63 million for famine relief , and his 1988 album Paradise in Gazankulu was a protest against apartheid in South Africa . He was appointed a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador in 1987 and later campaigned to eradicate AIDS from Africa After recovering from prostate cancer in 1996 , he advocated for awareness of the disease . In the 1960s , when Mr . Poitier was becoming a major box o ce attraction , Mr . Belafonte was not making any films : Hollywood , he said , was not interested in the socially responsible films he wanted to make , and he was not interested in the roles o ered to him . He has , however , become a familiar presence – and an occasional source of controversy – on television . His " Tonight With Belafonte " special won an Emmy in 1960 ( a first for a black performer ), but a deal to do five more specials for that show ' s sponsor , cosmetics company Revlon , fell apart after the airing of another episode ; according to Mr . Belafonte , Revlon had asked him not to present black and white artists together . The taping of a 1968 special with Petula Clark was cut short when Ms . Clark touched Mr . Belafonte ' s arm , and a representative from sponsor Chrysler-Plymouth demanded a rerun . ( The producer refused and the sponsor ' s representative later apologized , although Mr . Belafonte said the apology had come " a hundred years too late .") When Mr . Belafonte returned to film as producer and co-starred , with Zero Mostel , in " The Angel Levine " ( 1970 ), based on a story by Bernard Malamud , the project had a sociopolitical edge : his company Harry Belafonte Enterprise , with a grant from the Ford Foundation , hired 15 black and Hispanic apprentices to learn filmmaking while working on the crew . One of them , Drake Walker , wrote the story for Mr . Belafonte ' s next film , " Buck and the Preacher " ( 1972 ), a gritty western that also starred Mr . Poitier . But after starring as a mob boss ( a parody of Marlon Brando ' s character in " The Godfather ") with Mr . Poitier and Bill Cosby in the 1974 hit comedy " Uptown Saturday Night " - realized , as had been ' Buck and the Preacher ', by M . Poitier - Mr . Belafonte was again absent from the big screen , this time until 1992 , when he played himself in Robert Altman ' s Hollywood satire " The Player ".