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Narrating "For Gold & Glory" is
acclaimed film actor Ossie Davis. A distinguished and
highly respected performer, Mr. Davis is an influential
and versatile actor, director, producer, screenwriter,
playwright, and historian. The son of a railroad engineer,
he was born in Cogdell, Georgia, in 1917 and earned
his degree at Howard University in Washington, DC. After
studying with Harlem's Rose McClendon Players, he made
his Broadway debut in 1946, appearing in "Jeb Turner,"
where he met his future wife, Ruby Dee, with whom he
would later host a radio and television show.
Mr. Davis began to appear in an increasing
number of television programs during the 1960s, including
the 1967 detective drama "The Outsider." As a playwright,
he also won critical acclaim for his work on the Broadway
musical "Purlie Victorious." By the 1970s, he was acting,
writing and directing, as well as running his own production
company, Third World Cinema, an organization dedicated
to helping African-American and Puerto Rican filmmakers.
As an actor, Ossie Davis is most familiar for his frequent appearances on television miniseries, such as "Roots" (1977) and on weekly programs like "Evening Shade." He continues to collaborate on many film works with director Spike Lee on films such as "Do the Right Thing" (1989), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Malcolm X" (1992), and "Get on the Bus" (1996). Throughout his life, Mr. Davis has been active in promoting civil rights and humanitarian causes. He and his wife have been inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame, and the Theater Hall of Fame. In the mid-1990s, he received the National Medal of Arts Award from President Bill Clinton.
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