Our late, great, celebrated matriarch of the arts Ruby Dee (1922-2014) lived as stellar of a life onscreen as she did off. From her 1946 film debut in The Man of Mine to Lifetime’s recent Betty and Coretta last year, her cinematic impact is inescapable. She will always be remembered for standout roles in nearly every generation. Movies like A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Black Girl (1972), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), American Gangster (2007) prove the point over and over again.
