Ossie Davis was an African-American actor who was best known for his roles on TV shows, especially since he broke away from the traditional view of African-American actors being good for nothing more than butlers, Pullman or porters. Ossie's life was one of triumph, success, inspiration.
Early Life:
Ossie Davis was born in Cogdell, Georgia on the 18th of December 1917. His birth name was Raiford Chatman Davis but because the clerk at the county office had a hard time understanding his mother's dialect she wrote down Ossie. In reality his mother had given her his initials R.C. But this name stuck and Ossie used it throughout his life. Ossie's father was a railway construction engineer so as you can expect money was not flowing as they wished, but they still had enough money to send him to Howard University. Ossie was always a big dreamer and because of that he decided to leave Howard and peruse his acting career in New York; this was probably the best decision of his life.
TV Career:
When Ossie first started out he the business he was not surprised to meet a lot of prejudice, in fact there was so much that he went through struggles similar to what Martin Luther King jr. went through. But in the end he prevailed landing roles such as Sam Davis on Bonanza, Ramon Dorelle on Hawaii Five-O, Noah on Gladiator, Judge Harry Roosevelt on The Client, and Melvin Porter on The L Word. This is a great accomplishment for any actor let alone somebody who lived in a time where every place they went they had to face people who hated them or did not care what happened either way. One of the great things about Ossie was that he did not take everything that was handed to him, he made sure to stay away from playing characters such as butlers, and servants. By doing show he helped show the whole world that there was a lot more to the life of an African-American that being someone's butler.
Other achievements:
In addition to being an actor Ossie was also a director, poet, writer, and activist. He directed the films Cotton Comes to Harlem, Black Girl, Gordon's War, Countdown at Kusini, and Kongi's harvest. These films brought him international fame and helped pave the way for other great black actors such as Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Over the years Ossie Davis has won many awards for his performances/work in the film industry. Some of them are the Black Film Award for Best Actor, Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special, Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a TV Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special, and a WGA Award for Adopted Drama Anthology. In addition he has won a Lifetime Achievement Award which he shares with Ruby Dee. Ossie was definitely one of the greatest actors of all times; on February 4th 2005 he closed his eyes for the final time in Miami Beach, Florida; he will be missed greatly. If you haven't seen any of his work I suggest you check out the movie Gladiator, or his TV show The L Word.
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