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Lena Horne

Lena Horne

Birthday: 1917-06-30 | Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Lena Horne was (1917-2010) was a singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood. Returning to her roots as a nightclub performer, Horne took part in the March on Washington in August 1963, and continued to work as a performer, both in nightclubs and on television, while releasing well-received record albums. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in a one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which ran for more than three hundred performances on Broadway and earned her numerous awards and accolades. She continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, disappearing from the public eye in 2000. Horne died on May 9, 2010 in New York City. During her lifetime, Horne was awarded four Grammys, a Tony, and a NAACP Image Award . She also received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1984.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2021
How It Feels to Be Free

as    Self (archival footage)

2019
Sid & Judy

as    Self (archive footage)

1994
That's Entertainment! III

as    Self - Co-Host / Narrator

1978
The Wiz

as    Glinda the Good

1969
Death of a Gunfighter

as    Claire Quintana

1946
Till the Clouds Roll By

as    Julie LaVerne / Lena Horne

1945
Ziegfeld Follies

as    Lena Horne

1944
Broadway Rhythm

as    Fernway de la Fer

1944
Swing Fever

as    Herself

1943
Cabin in the Sky

as    Georgia Brown

1943
I Dood It

as    Herself

1938
The Duke Is Tops

as    Ethel Andrews