Note: This piece was written prior to Ruby Dee's SAG win for Best Supporting Actress. In it, I proclaimed that on the day of her Academy Award Nomination "the tide (had) turned." I am delighted to see that it has.
When I woke on the morning of the announcements of the Academy Award nominations, I was so full of joy to hear that Ruby Dee had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in American Gangster. Only the night before, I was channel surfing and found her in extreme close up in one of her other unforgettable roles, Ruth Younger, in A Raisin in the Sun. I couldn't help but pause. With that beautiful and expressive face you can't do otherwise. Her performance in the film was cause for nominations, awards, applause and passages in the text of film history.
Later, when I did a bit of research, I had a silent fit of outrage when I read that she had never been nominated for an Academy Award. To speculate upon this fully is the subject of an entire book, one in which injustice is surely at the center. However, alongside injustice is irony and stupidity. (If you saw Frank Langella in Starting Out in the Evening, you know all too well what I mean.) Ms. Dee, I'm afraid has for many, many years not been given her due because of all of this and more.
The tide turned on Tuesday.
I wrote a very flawed screenplay several months ago. Almost all of the characters were women...women over 50 (oh, the commercial possibilities). There was a very special character that I wrote with Ruby Dee in mind. Perhaps, the best scene in the script was where I imagined her doing most of the acting without ever saying a word. The music playing in the background is Speak Low sung with the haunting voice and heartbreaking interpretation of Billie Holiday. Dee's character is in her elegant hotel room on a theatrical tour and sits finally and quietly at the end of a long day looking at an old scrapbook with photos of those she has loved (and lost).
The haunting words: "Speak low when you speak love. Our summer day withers away. Too soon. Too soon. Speak low." Later the same day, I learned that these words would apply too soon to young Heath Ledger. I admired him very, very much. Like Ms. Dee, he will always be one of the heartbreaking geniuses of screen acting.
Tuesday was a day to remember for its tragedy but also to take note -- and I'll bet Mr. Ledger, so obviously a wise and old soul, knew this too -- that Dee's first name is Ruby, and she is one of our most precious gems.