HARRY BELAFONTE, THE legendary singer, actor, and civil rights activist, died Tuesday, April 25, Rolling Stone has confirmed. He was 96.
Belafonte died at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine adding the cause was congestive heart failure.
Belafonte rose to prominence in the Fifties when his interpretation of calypso music popularized the sounds of the Caribbean for an American mainstream audience. His many hits include “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jamaica Farewell.” He appeared in numerous films as an actor, notably with Dorothy Dandridge or his prefame friend Sidney Poitier. Carmen Jones from 1954 and Island in the Sun from 1957 thrust him into superstardom, breaking barriers as a Black idol and sex symbol, even as his musical career peaked with the million-selling albums Calypso in 1956 and Jump Up Calypso in 1961.
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