Ruby Dee Dead: Oscar-Nominated American Gangster Star, Civil Rights Activist Was 91

Born in Cleveland Ruby Dee an Oscar nominee, has died at age 91.

The Gangster Actress passed away at her home in New Rochelle, New York on Wednesday.

According to TheHollywoodReporter, Ruby Dee’s agent disclosed this incident on Thursday, June 12,2014.

Her husband Ossie Davis died in 2005, he was 56 years.

The two love birds played roles in Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washigton.

 

Dee, who was born in 1924 and began her on-screen acting career in the mid-1940s.

She also starred in the 1961 movie A Raisin in the Sun and co-starred with her husband in Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing and the director's 1991 movie Jungle Fever.

All three films explored the topic of racism in America.

In 2007, she played Mama Lucas in the gritty film American Gangster.

The movie, which starred Washington as crime and drug lord Frank Lucas, earned Dee, 83 at the time, her first and only Oscar nomination.

She lost to Tilda Swinton of Michael Clayton.

Dee also won an Emmy for her role in the 1990 TV movie Decoration Day and earned a total of six Emmy nominations throughout her career.

The actress' most recent film project was King Dog, a yet-to-be-released crime drama starring Ice-T and wife Coco Austin.