Harry Belafonte Documentary - Hollywood Walk of Fame

Harry Belafonte is an American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican American pop stars ever as he popularised the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including Carmen Jones , Island in the Sun , and Odds Against Tomorrow .

Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s and was a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr.. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush presidential administrations. Belafonte acts as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.

Belafonte has won three Grammy Awards , an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards.
Early life
Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. at Lying-in Hospital on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York, the son of Melvine , a housekeeper, and Harold George Bellanfanti Sr., who worked as a chef. His mother was born in Jamaica, the child of a Scottish Jamaican mother and an Afro-Jamaican father. His father also was born in Jamaica, the child of a black mother and Dutch-Jewish father of Sephardic Jewish descent. Harry, Jr. was raised Catholic.