Ossie Davis (1917-2005)

StinkyLulu wants to take a moment to remember the awesome Ossie Davis, who passed this morning.

Now, Mr. Davis never entered the zone of StinkyLu's favorite actors (though his performance as the Mayor in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing does stand out as one of the truest portrayals of mundane alcoholism). Indeed, much of StinkyLulu's appreciation for Ossie Davis the actor comes from the work he did opposite his wife, the incomparably amazing Ruby Dee. But -- like Jessica Tandy & Hume Cronyn -- Dee and Davis were a team, a pair of actors who shared their incredible lives in the theater/etc.

But the passing of Ossie Davis reminds StinkyLulu of how few citizen-artists really remain. Davis, along with Dee, stood steadily as an artist who was also a citizen also an activist also a human life. This is an age when entertainment figures like Bill O'Reilly have diminished and impugned the legitimacy of any actor/artist who dares to speak -- like Ossie did in honor of Martin Luther Kind, Malcolm X and Paul Robeson -- in the struggle for social justice. Somehow, Davis & Dee maintained artistically & commercially dynamic acting careers amidst ALL their work/s.

StinkyLulu wonders if such a path is still possible.
But -- to honor all of Ossie Davis' life works -- StinkyLulu's gonna be sure to remember Ossie Davis...the actor - the artist - the activist - the partner - the man. An uncommonly accomplished man, on all counts. Blessings.