Although in Dandrige lost the award to Grace Kelly, Dandrige seemed achieving the same level of achievement in fame with actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner. In 1955, she was even featured on the cover of Life magazine. However in the years following her success with Carmen Jones she found it hard in finding a strong leading roles due to her because her opportunities were still very limited due to her race. For example, Dandrige had turned down a supporting role of Tuptim in The King and I (1956) because she had refused to play a slave. Finally on September 8th, 1965, Dorothy Dandrige was found dead in her Hollywood home at the age of 42 due to an overdose on antidepressants. In her final days, it was said that Dandrige had a little bit more than $2 in her bank account.
Despite Dorothy Dandrige's fame and talent, she still faced so much discrimination in her field of work. Yet her achievements were one of the first steps into fighting against segregation and racism.
This is a really cool article! It kind of reminds me of Jim Crow laws. Even though segregation was mostly over by this point, Dandrige was still turned down for a job on the basis of her race, and also probably because of the stereotypes against African Americans. It's also really sad to me that she died in such a sad way.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Dorothy Drawbridge's story is a sad one, she brought a lot of attention to the success that was possible for African American women. She inspired many which led to the increase of African Americans in the film industry. Since she was well known especially in the African American community, her death brought about a reason for change. All the pressure on her lead to her death but her breakthrough led to opportunities for many others.
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