In the midst of chaos, he was always the voice of reason. He was so venerated that he was chosen to give a eulogy at the funerals of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
His eulogy for Malcolm was so stirring and appropriate that Spike Lee elected to use it intact for his movie Malcolm X (1992).
While colleagues filled the pages of the supermarket tabloids, he and wife Ruby Dee quietly celebrated their 50th anniversary. Ossie Davis died at 87, and we won’t soon see his like again.
In 1963, Mr. Davis wrote the screenplay (originally titled Purlie Victorious) and starred in Gone Are the Days, a modern fable about a young black preacher seeking to set free the spirits of the workers on a plantation in Georgia.
Certainly humorous and engaging, the story has a definite cutting edge that stays with you. It marked the film debut of a certain Alan Alda, who played the moss-backed plantation owner’s liberal son.
Later Purlie was triumphantly reborn as a Broadway musical with the multi-talented Ben Vereen in the title role.
In addition to the film biography of Malcolm, Mr. Davis enjoyed a long and successful association with director Spike Lee.
In Mr. Lee’s definitive Do the Right Thing (1989), Mr. Davis is the voice of reason nobody heeds as “da mayor.” Danny Aiello is outstanding as the white owner of a pizza joint in the depths of the hood, and Mr. Lee himself plays Mookie, the central character in a movie that still sparks controversy on both sides of the racial divide.
Mr. Davis is also on board for Mr. Lee’s Get on the Bus (1996), about a disparate group of brothers headed for the march on Washington.
In the controversial Jungle Fever (1991), Mr. Davis is the Reverend Purify. Wesley Snipes is the upwardly mobile black executive having a fling with his white secretary, Annabella Sciorra. The movie has few answers, but raises all sorts of interesting questions.
The Hill (1965) is Sidney Lumet’s still powerful drama about a military prison camp. Mr. Davis is in good company with Sean Connery and Michael Redgrave.
Mr. Davis was Noah in the award-winning Gladiator (1992). In I’m Not Rapaport (1996), Mr. Davis is paired with Walter Matthau; they are a couple of pleasantly adversarial old guys who meet and argue on a daily basis. Better than it sounds!
All of the films in this column are available on DVD, except I’m Not Rapaport (I have no idea why not). All are for grown-ups.
Rusty Hammond has been writing the Mr. Movie column since 1996. It appears in several newspapers in North Carolina.
Voices
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