lileneboheme Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 Actress, dancer, and singer Lena Horne was born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, NY. She left school at age 16 to help support her ailing mother and became a dancer at the Cotton Club in Harlem. She later sang at Carnegie Hall and then appeared in such films as Stormy Weather, Cabin in the Sky, and Meet Me in Las Vegas among others. Her role in the movie Stormy Weather (1943) included her rendition of the title song, which became her trademark. A remarkably charismatic entertainer, Horne was one of the most popular singers of her time. One of her albums, Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria (1957), was a longtime best seller, and her first featured performance on Broadway in the musical Jamaica (1957) won her a New York Drama Critics Poll Award in 1958. Though primarily known as an entertainer, Horne also was noted for her work with civil rights and political organizations. As an actress, she refused to play roles that stereotyped African-American women. Her one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981), garnered many awards including a Drama Critics Circle Award and a special achievement Tony Award. In 1984, Horne received a Kennedy Center honor for lifetime contribution to the arts, and in 1989 she was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. From bio.com... Quote
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