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Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917) is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 notables, including Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an United States jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of his time....
, Teddy Wilson
Teddy Wilson

Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was a Jazz piano from the United States of America born in Austin, Texas. His sophisticated and elegant style graced the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald....
, Billy Strayhorn
Billy Strayhorn

William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an United States composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting close to three decades....
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
, Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", and "Southland Shuffle"....
, Benny Carter
Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an United States jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King ....
, and Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine

William Clarence ?Billy? Eckstein was an American singer of ballads and bandleader of the Swing Era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music....
. She currently lives in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and no longer makes public appearances.

Horne was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of the five Borough of New York City, located at the western end of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area....
, New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. Both sides of her family claim a mixture of African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
, Native American
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
, and Caucasian
White American

White American is an umbrella term officially employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government for the classification of United States citizens or resident aliens "having origins in any of the original peoples of Ethnic groups of Europe, the Ethnic groups of the Middle East, or Ethnic gro...
 descent.






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Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917) is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 notables, including Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an United States jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of his time....
, Teddy Wilson
Teddy Wilson

Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was a Jazz piano from the United States of America born in Austin, Texas. His sophisticated and elegant style graced the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald....
, Billy Strayhorn
Billy Strayhorn

William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an United States composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting close to three decades....
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
, Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", and "Southland Shuffle"....
, Benny Carter
Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an United States jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King ....
, and Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine

William Clarence ?Billy? Eckstein was an American singer of ballads and bandleader of the Swing Era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music....
. She currently lives in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and no longer makes public appearances.

Biography


Early years

Lena Horne was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of the five Borough of New York City, located at the western end of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area....
, New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. Both sides of her family claim a mixture of African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
, Native American
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
, and Caucasian
White American

White American is an umbrella term officially employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government for the classification of United States citizens or resident aliens "having origins in any of the original peoples of Ethnic groups of Europe, the Ethnic groups of the Middle East, or Ethnic gro...
 descent. Both were part of what W.E.B. DuBois called "the talented tenth," the upper stratum of middle-class, well-educated African Americans. She grew up in an upper middle class
Upper middle class

The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term lower middle class used for the group at the other end of the middle class scale and the regular middle class....
 black community. Her father, Edwin "Teddy" Horne, who worked in the gambling
Gambling

Gambling is the wikt:wager#Verb of money or something of material Value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods....
 trade, left the family when she was three. Her mother, Edna Scottron, was the daughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron
Samuel R. Scottron

Samuel Raymond Scottron was a prominent African-American inventor from Brooklyn, N.Y. who began his career as a barber. He was born in Philadelphia in 1841....
; she was an actress with an African American theater troupe and traveled extensively. Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. Her uncle, Frank S. Horne, was an adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She is a reported descendant of the John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun was the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States. He was a leading United States Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century....
 family.

Career

In the fall of 1933, Lena Horne joined the chorus line of the Cotton Club
Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was a famous night club in New York City that operated during Prohibition. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Wat...
 in New York City. In the spring of 1934, she had a featured role in the Cotton Club Parade. A few years later she joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra and toured with this orchestra. After she separated from her first husband, Lena Horne toured with bandleader Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", and "Southland Shuffle"....
 in 1940-41, but disliked the travel and left the band to work at the Cafe Society in New York. She replaced Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore was an United States singer, actress, and Celebrity. She was most popular during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s.After failing singing auditions for the bands of Benny Goodman and both Jimmy Dorsey and his brother Tommy Dorsey, Shore struck out on her own to become the first singer of her era to achieve huge solo succe...
 as the featured vocalist on NBC's popular jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street

The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was a musical variety radio program which began on the Blue Network in 1940. The magazine Radio Life described it as "one of radio's strangest offsprings......
. The show's resident maestros, Henry Levine and Paul Laval, recorded with Horne in June 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne left the show after only six months to headline a nightclub revue on the west coast; she was replaced by Linda Keene.

Lena Horne already had two low-budget movies to her credit: a 1938 musical feature called The Duke is Tops
The Duke is Tops

The Duke is Tops is a 1938 in film United States musical film, released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later rereleased under the title The Bronze Venus, with Lena Horne given top billing....
 (later reissued with Horne's name above the title as The Bronze Venus); and a 1941 two-reel short subject, Boogie Woogie Dream, featuring pianists Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson

Peter Johnson was an United States jazz pianist, best known as a leading boogie-woogie pianist....
 and Albert Ammons
Albert Ammons

Albert Ammons was an United States pianist. Ammons was the king of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style that swept the United States from the late 1930s into the mid 1940s....
. Horne's songs from Boogie Woogie Dream were later released individually as Soundies
Soundies

Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946....
. Horne was primarily a nightclub performer during this period, and it was during a 1942 club engagement in Hollywood that talent scouts approached Horne to work in pictures. She chose Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the most prestigious studio in the world, and became the first African American performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.

She made her debut with MGM in 1942's Panama Hattie
Panama Hattie

Panama Hattie is a musical theater with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM musical based upon the play....
 and became famous in 1943 for her rendition of "Stormy Weather" in the movie of the same name
Stormy Weather (1943 film)

Stormy Weather is the title of an United States musical film motion picture produced and released by 20th Century Fox in 1943 in film.The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 in film with primarily African-American casts, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky, and is considered a time capsule showcasing some...
 (which she made at 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, or simply Fox, is one of the six Worldwide major film studios....
, on loan from MGM). She appeared in a number of MGM musical
Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the fictional character are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters....
s, most notably Cabin in the Sky
Cabin in the Sky

Cabin in the Sky is an United States Broadway theatre Musical theatre which opened in 1940. A motion picture based on the musical was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1943....
 (also 1943), but was never featured in a leading role due to her race and the fact that films featuring her had to be reedited for showing in states where theaters could not show films with African American performers. As a result, most of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline; a notable exception was the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, though even then one of her numbers had to be cut because it was considered too suggestive by the censors. "Ain't it the Truth" was the song (and scene) cut before the release of the film Cabin in the Sky. It featured Lena Horne singing "Ain't it the Truth," while taking a bubble bath (considered too "risque" by the film's executives). This scene and song are featured in the film "That's Entertainment III
That's Entertainment III

That's Entertainment! III is a documentary film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 70th anniversary. It was the third in a series of retrospectives that began with the first That's Entertainment! and That's Entertainment II ....
", which also features commentary from Lena Horne on why the scene was deleted prior to the film's release.

In Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies (film)

Ziegfeld Follies is a 1946 Hollywood Musical film comedy film, directed by Roy Del Ruth and Vincente Minnelli, starring many of MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams....
 (1946) she performs "Love" by Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin

'Hugh Martin' is an American musical theatre and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the classic 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St....
 and Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane

Ralph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer....
.

Horne wanted to be considered for the role of Julie LaVerne in MGM's 1951 version of Show Boat
Show Boat

Show Boat is a musical theatre in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. One notable exception is the song Bill , which was originally written by Kern and author-lyricist P....
 (having already played the role when a segment of Show Boat was performed in Till the Clouds Roll By
Till the Clouds Roll By

Till The Clouds Roll By is an United States musical film-biography film made by MGM in 1946 in film.The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern, who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed....
) but Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner

Ava Lavinia Gardner was an Academy Award-nominated United States actress. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years......
 was hired to play the part (the production code
Production Code

File:Code hays, cover.gifThe Production Code was the set of industry censorship guidelines, and the office enforcing them, which governed the production of Cinema of the United States from 1930 to 1968....
 office had banned interracial relationships in films). In the documentary That's Entertainment! III Horne stated that MGM executives required Gardner to practice her singing using recordings of Horne performing the songs, which offended both actresses (ultimately, Gardner ended up having her singing voice overdubbed by another actress (Annette Warren (Smith)) for the theatrical release, though her own voice was heard on the soundtrack album).

Changes of direction

By the mid-1950s, Horne was disenchanted with Hollywood and increasingly focused on her nightclub career. She only made two major appearances in MGM films during the decade, 1950's Duchess of Idaho
Duchess of Idaho

Duchess of Idaho was a musical film romantic comedy produced in 1950 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it was one of a series of films starring swimmer Esther Williams....
 (which was also Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Powell

Eleanor Torrey Powell was an United States film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing....
's film swan song), and the 1956 musical Meet Me in Las Vegas
Meet Me in Las Vegas

Meet Me in Las Vegas is an MGM musical comedy produced by Joe Pasternack and directed by Roy Rowland filmed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope....
. She was blacklist
Blacklist

A blacklist is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition....
ed during the 1950s for her political views. She returned to the screen three more times, playing chanteuse Claire Quintana in the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter
Death of a Gunfighter

Death of a Gunfighter is a 1969 in film Western movie. It is most notable for the first use of the pseudonymous Alan Smithee film director credit....
, Glinda in The Wiz
The Wiz

The Wiz is a 1975 in music#Musical theatre, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, exclusively featuring African American actors....
 (1978), and co-hosting the 1994 MGM retrospective That's Entertainment! III, in which she was candid about her treatment by the studio.

After leaving Hollywood, Lena Horne established herself as one of the premiere nightclub
Nightclub

A nightclub is a Alcoholic beverage, Dance and entertainment Music venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as clubbers....
 performers of the post-war era. She headlined at clubs and hotels throughout the US, Canada and Europe, including the Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel

The Sands Hotel was an historic Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, the Sands was the seventh resort that opened on the Strip....
 in Las Vegas, the Cocoanut Grove
Cocoanut Grove

Cocoanut Grove may refer to:Places:*Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida*Coconut Grove , a metro station serving the above location*Coconut Grove, Northern Territory, a suburb of Darwin, Australia...
 in Los Angeles and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. In 1957, a live album entitled, "Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria," became the largest selling record by a female artist in the history of the RCA-Victor label.

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, Horne was a staple of TV variety shows, appearing multiple times on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall
Kraft Music Hall

The Kraft Music Hall was a major NBC radio variety program, featuring top show business entertainers, in a 16-year span from 1933 to 1949....
, Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan

Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an United States entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of a popular TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was at its height of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s....
, The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show

The Dean Martin Show is a TV Variety show-Television comedy that ran from 1965 in television to 1974 in television, for 245 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by legendary crooner Dean Martin....
 and The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour

The Bell Telephone Hour, aka The Telephone Hour, was a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958....
. Other programs included, The Judy Garland Show
The Judy Garland Show

The Judy Garland Show is an American Variety show television series. The show aired on CBS during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star....
, The Hollywood Palace and The Andy Williams Show
The Andy Williams Show

The Andy Williams Show was a television variety show which ran from 1959 to 1971 , and a short-lived run in syndication, beginning in the fall of 1976....
. Besides two television specials for the BBC (later syndicated in the US), Horne starred in her own US television special in 1969, Monsanto Night Presents Lena Horne. In 1970, she co-starred with Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte

Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
 in the hour long "Harry & Lena" for ABC; in 1973, she co-starred with Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an United States singer of traditional pop music, pop standards and jazz.Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age....
 in "Tony and Lena." Horne and Bennett subsequently toured the US and UK in a show together. A very memorable appearance was in the 1976 program "America Salutes Richard Rodgers," where she sang a lengthy medley of Rodgers songs with Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an United States jazz and traditional pop singer and songwriter and Academy Award-nominated actress. She was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota....
 and Vic Damone
Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an United States singer and entertainer....
. Horne also made several appearances on The Flip Wilson Show
The Flip Wilson Show

The Flip Wilson Show is a variety show that aired in the United States on NBC from September 17, 1970 to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs starring a black person in the title role to become highly successful with a white audience....
.

Additionally, Horne played herself on television programs as The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show is a television program featuring a cast of The Muppets, which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from Sesame Street....
, Sesame Street
Sesame Street

Sesame Street is an Television in the United States educational children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both edutainment....
, and Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son

Sanford and Son is an American sitcom that premiered on the NBC television network on January 14, 1972 in television, and was broadcast for six seasons....
 in the 1970s, as well as a 1985 performance on The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show is an United States television program situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, first airing on September 20, 1984 and running for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until April 30, 1992....
 and a 1993 appearance on A Different World
A Different World

A Different World is an United States television sitcom which aired for six seasons on NBC . It was a spin-off series from The Cosby Show, originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional Historically Black colleges and universities in Virginia....
.

Lenahorne
In the summer of 1980, Lena Horne, 63 years old and intent on retiring from show business, embarked on a two month series of benefit concerts sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta

Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community....
. These concerts were represented as Horne's farewell tour, yet her retirement lasted less than a year.

In May 1981, The Nederlander Organization
Nederlander Organization

The Nederlander Organization , founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander of Detroit, is one of the largest, most experienced operators of live theatre and music in the United States....
 booked Lena Horne for a four week engagement at the newly named Nederlander Theatre (formerly the Trafalgar, the Billy Rose and the National) on West 41st Street in New York City. The show was an instant success and was extended to a full year run, garnering Horne a special Tony award, and two Grammy Awards for the cast recording of her show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. The 333 performance Broadway run closed on Horne's 65 birthday, June 30, 1982. Later that same week, the entire show was performed again and video taped for television broadcast and home video release. The tour began a few days later at Tanglewood (MA) during the 1982 July 4th weekend. "The Lady and Her Music" toured 41 cities in the U.S and Canada through June 17, 1984. It played in London for a month in August and ended its run in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 1984.

In 1958, Horne was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live United States theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City....
 for "Best Actress in a Musical" (for her part in the "Calypso
Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the beginning of the 20th century....
" musical Jamaica
Jamaica (musical)

Jamaica is a musical theatre with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Harold Arlen. Harburg was Hollywood blacklist at the time of the writing of the musical....
) In 1981 she received a Special Tony Award for her one-woman show, Lena Horne: "The Lady and Her Music". Despite the show's considerable success (Horne still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history), she did not capitalize on the renewed interest in her career by undertaking many new musical projects. A proposed 1983 joint recording project between Horne and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
 (to be produced by Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. , is an United States music Conductor , record producer, musical arranger, film composer and trumpeter. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991....
) was ultimately abandoned, and her sole studio recording of the decade was 1988's The Men In My Life, featuring duets with Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel George ?Sammy? Davis, Jr. was an United States entertainer. He was a dancer, singer, multi-instrumentalist , Impressionist , comedian, convert to Judaism, and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor....
 and Joe Williams
Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues music, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards....
. In 1989, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

The Grammy Award Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording" ....
.

The 1990s found Horne considerably more active in the recording studio - all the more remarkable considering she was approaching her 80th year. Following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of her good friend Billy Strayhorn (Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
's longtime pianist and arranger), she decided to record an album composed largely of Strayhorn's and Ellington's songs the following year, We'll Be Together Again. To coincide with the release of the album, Horne made what would be her final concert performances at New York's Supper Club and Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue , occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street , two blocks south of Central Park....
. That same year, Horne also lent her vocals to a recording of "Embraceable You" on Sinatra's "Duets II" album. Though the album was largely derided by critics, the Sinatra-Horne pairing was generally regarded as its highlight. In 1995, a "live" album capturing her Supper Club performance was released (subsequently winning a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album). In 1998, at the age of 81, Horne released another studio album, entitled Being Myself
Being Myself

Being Myself is the debut album by rapper Juvenile , released on February 7, 1995 by Warlock Records....
. Thereafter, Horne essentially retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though she did return to the recording studio in 2000 to contribute vocal tracks on Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Denis Rattle, Order of the British Empire, Royal Society of Arts, is an England Conducting. He rose to prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and is currently principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
's Classic Ellington album.

Civil rights activism

Horne also is noteworthy for her contributions to the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring approximately between 1960 to 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion....
. In 1941, she sang at Cafe Society
Café Society

Caf? society was the collective description for the so-called "beautiful people" and "bright young things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in Paris, London, Rome or New York City, beginning in the late 1800s....
 and worked with Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson

Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson was an American actor of film and stage, All-American and professional sportsperson, writer, multi-lingual orator, lawyer, and basso profondo concert singer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism....
, a singer who also combated American racial discrimination. During World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform "for segregated
Racial segregation

File:Segregated cinema entrance3.jpgRacial segregation is the separation of different Race s in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a drinking fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home....
 audiences or to groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen" , according to her Kennedy Center biography. She was at an NAACP rally with Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers

Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American African-American Civil Rights Movement activism from Mississippi who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan....
 in Jackson, Mississippi the weekend before Evers was assassinated. She was at the March on Washington and spoke and performed in behalf of the NAACP, SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC was one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s....
 and the National Council for Negro Women. She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D....
 to pass anti-lynching
Lynching in the United States

Lynching in the United States was the 19th and 20th century practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action in the United States of America....
 laws.

Tributes and rereleases

In 2003, ABC announced that Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Born in Gary, Indiana and raised in Encino, Los Angeles, California, she is the youngest child of the Jackson family of musicians....
 would star as Horne in a television biopic. In the weeks following Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the 2004 Super Bowl
Super Bowl XXXVIII

Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game played on February 1, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas to decide the National Football League champion following the 2003 NFL season....
, however, Variety
Variety (magazine)

Variety is a weekly entertainment trade newspaper founded in New York in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Hollywood, was founded by Silverman in 1933....
 reported that Horne demanded Jackson be dropped from the project. "ABC executives resisted Horne's demand," according to the Associated Press
Associated Press

The Associated Press is an Media of the United States news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, Radio station and Television station stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers....
 report, "but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part." Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey is an United Statesn television presenter, Media proprietor and philanthropist. Her television syndication talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, has earned her multiple Emmy Awards and is the highest-rated talk show in the history of television....
 stated to Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American contemporary R&B and soul music singer-songwriter, pianist, cello and actor....
 during a 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Oprah Winfrey Show is a United States Television syndication talk show, hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey, and is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
 that she might possibly consider producing the biopic herself, casting Keys as Horne.

In January 2005, Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards....
, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note. Remixed by her longtime producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne in remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as "Something to Live For", "Chelsea Bridge" and "Stormy Weather". The album, originally titled Soul but renamed Seasons of a Life, was released on January 24 2006.

In 2007, Horne was portrayed by Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams is United States actress and singer, perhaps best known for her Tony Award-winning work in Hallelujah, Baby!Uggams first started in show business as a child in 1950, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on the television series Beulah #Television....
 as the older Lena and Nikki Crawford as the younger Lena in the stage musical Stormy Weather which is playing at the Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse

The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California....
 in California (January, February, and through March 1, 2009).

Personal life

Horne married Louis Jordan Jones in January 1937 and they lived in Pittsburgh. In December 1937 they had a daughter, Gail and in February 1940, a son, Edwin. Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and they divorced in 1944.

Lena Horne's second marriage was to Lennie Hayton
Lennie Hayton

Leonard George Hayton was a Jewish American composer, conductor and arranger. He was initially a pianist in jazz groups led by Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti and others....
, a Jewish American, from December 1947 until his death in 1971. Hayton was one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM. In her as-told-to autobiography Lena by Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel

Richard Warren Schickel is an author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
, Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as an interracial married couple. However, she later admitted (Ebony
Ebony (magazine)

Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the Autumn of 1945....
, May 1980) that she really married Hayton to advance her career and cross the "color-line" in show business.

Horne is a member of Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta

Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community....
 Sorority, Incorporated.

Awards and recognitions


Grammy Awards

Lena Horne Grammy Award
Grammy Award

The Grammy Awards ?or Grammys?are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry....
 History
Year Category Title Genre Label Result
1995 Best Jazz Vocal Performance An Evening with Lena Horne Jazz Blue Note Winner
1989 Lifetime Achievement Awards    Winner
1988 Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female The Men in My Life Jazz Three Cherries Nominee
1988 Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Duo or Group I Won't Leave You Again Jazz Three Cherries Nominee
1981 Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female The Lady and Her Music, Live on Broadway Pop Qwest Winner
1981 Best Cast Show Album The Lady and Her Music Live on Broadway Pop Qwest Winner
1962 Best Female Vocal Performance Porgy and Bess Pop RCA Nominee
1961 Female Solo Vocal Performance Lena at the Sands Pop RCA Nominee


Other awards


Year Organization Category Result Notes
2006 Martin Luther King, Jr.
National Historic Site		 International Civil Rights
Walk of Fame		 Inducted
1999 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Jazz Artist
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Artist

The NAACP Image Award winners for Outstanding Jazz Artist:...
 Winner
1994 Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award Songwriters Hall of Fame Winner
? Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at 6282 Hollywood Blvd Honor (motion pictures)
? Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at 6250 Hollywood Blvd Honor (recordings)
1987 American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers		 The ASCAP Pied Piper Award Winner Given to entertainers who have made significant contributions to words and music
1985 Emmy Award "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music" Nominee
1984 John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts		 Kennedy Center Honors Winner For extraordinary talent, creativity, and perseverance
1980 Howard University
Howard University

Howard University is a private university, coeducational, nonsectarian, Historically black colleges and universities university located in Washington, D.C., United States....
 Honorary doctorate Honored
1980 Drama Desk Awards Outstanding Actress - Musical Winner "The Lady and Her Music"
1980 New York Drama Critics Circle Awards Special Citation Winner "The Lady and Her Music"
1957 Tony Awards Best Actress Nominee "Jamaica"


Filmography


Film

  • The Duke Is Tops
    The Duke is Tops

    The Duke is Tops is a 1938 in film United States musical film, released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later rereleased under the title The Bronze Venus, with Lena Horne given top billing....
     (1938)
  • Panama Hattie
    Panama Hattie

    Panama Hattie is a musical theater with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM musical based upon the play....
     (1942)
  • Cabin in the Sky
    Cabin in the Sky

    Cabin in the Sky is an United States Broadway theatre Musical theatre which opened in 1940. A motion picture based on the musical was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1943....
     (1943)
  • Stormy Weather (1943)
  • Thousands Cheer
    Thousands Cheer

    Thousands Cheer was an United States musical film-comedy released by MGM in 1943.Produced at the height of the Second World War, the film was intended as a morale booster for American troops and their families....
     (1943)
  • I Dood It
    I Dood It

    I Dood It is a MGM musical film-comedy film starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, and directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay is by Fred Saidy and Sig Herzig and the film features Richard Ainley, Patricia Dane, Lena Horne and Hazel Scott....
     (1943)
  • Swing Fever (1943)
  • Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944)
  • Broadway Rhythm
    Broadway Rhythm

    Broadway Rhythm is an MGM Technicolor musical film. It was produced by Jack Cummings and directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film was originally announced as Broadway Melody of 1944 to follow MGM's Broadway Melody films of 1929, 1936, 1938, and 1940....
     (1944)
  • Two Girls and a Sailor
    Two Girls and a Sailor

    Two Girls and a Sailor is a 1944 in film musical film about two singing sisters who are helped to set up a canteen to entertain soldiers by a mysterious wealthy admirer....
     (1944)
  • Studio Visit (1946)
  • Till the Clouds Roll By
    Till the Clouds Roll By

    Till The Clouds Roll By is an United States musical film-biography film made by MGM in 1946 in film.The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern, who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed....
     (1946)
  • Ziegfeld Follies
    Ziegfeld Follies (film)

    Ziegfeld Follies is a 1946 Hollywood Musical film comedy film, directed by Roy Del Ruth and Vincente Minnelli, starring many of MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams....
     (1946)
  • Words and Music
    Words and Music (1948 film)

    Words and Music is a movie loosely based on the lives of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. The film starred Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake, Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, and Ann Sothern and is best remembered for the final screen pairing between Rooney and Judy Garland and fine showcasing of the Rodgers & Hart catalog....
     (1948)
  • Some of the Best (1949)
  • Duchess of Idaho
    Duchess of Idaho

    Duchess of Idaho was a musical film romantic comedy produced in 1950 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it was one of a series of films starring swimmer Esther Williams....
     (1950)
  • Meet Me in Las Vegas
    Meet Me in Las Vegas

    Meet Me in Las Vegas is an MGM musical comedy produced by Joe Pasternack and directed by Roy Rowland filmed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope....
     (1956)
  • The Heart of Show Business (1957)
  • Now (1965) (includes Horne's performance of the song Now!)
  • Death of a Gunfighter
    Death of a Gunfighter

    Death of a Gunfighter is a 1969 in film Western movie. It is most notable for the first use of the pseudonymous Alan Smithee film director credit....
     (1969)
  • The Wiz
    The Wiz (film)

    The Wiz is a 1978 Cinema of the United States musical film produced by Motown Productions and Universal Pictures, and released by Universal on October 24, 1978....
     (1978)
  • That's Entertainment! III (1994)


Television

  • What's My Line?
    What's My Line?

    What's My Line? is a weekly panel game show which was produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. When first sold to CBS, the proposed title was Occupation Unknown....
     (as Mystery Guest September 27, 1953)
  • The Judy Garland Show
    The Judy Garland Show

    The Judy Garland Show is an American Variety show television series. The show aired on CBS during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star....
     (as herself October 13, 1963)
  • Sesame Street
    Sesame Street

    Sesame Street is an Television in the United States educational children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both edutainment....
     (as herself, 1971)
  • Sanford & Son ("A Visit from Lena Horne," as herself, #2.12, 1973)
  • The Muppet Show
    The Muppet Show

    The Muppet Show is a television program featuring a cast of The Muppets, which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from Sesame Street....
     (as herself, Syndicated, 1976)
  • Sesame Street
    Sesame Street

    Sesame Street is an Television in the United States educational children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both edutainment....
     (as herself, Episode 11, November 1, 1976)
  • The Cosby Show
    The Cosby Show

    The Cosby Show is an United States television program situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, first airing on September 20, 1984 and running for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until April 30, 1992....
     ("Cliff's Birthday" as herself, May 9, 1985)
  • A Different World
    A Different World

    A Different World is an United States television sitcom which aired for six seasons on NBC . It was a spin-off series from The Cosby Show, originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional Historically Black colleges and universities in Virginia....
     (as herself July 1, 1993)


Discography


Albums

  • "Moanin' Low" (1942; A Victor Musical Smart Set)
  • Little Girl Blue (1947; Black & White)
  • Classics in Blue (1947; Black & White)
  • It's Love (1955; RCA)
  • Stormy Weather (1956; RCA)
  • At the Waldorf Astoria (1957; RCA)
  • Jamaica [Original Cast Recording] (1957; RCA)
  • Give the Lady What She Wants (1958; RCA)
  • I Feel So Smoochie (1958; Lion [songs Horne recorded for MGM records in the late 1940s])
  • Porgy & Bess (1959; RCA) - with Harry Belafonte
    Harry Belafonte

    Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
  • Songs by Burke and Van Heusen (1960; RCA)
  • At the Sands (1961; RCA)
  • Lena on the Blue Side (1962; RCA)
  • Lovely & Alive (1963; RCA)
  • Sings Your Requests (1963; Charter)
  • Lena Like Latin [later retitled Lena Goes Latin] (1963; Charter)
  • Here's Lena Now! (1964; 20th Century)
  • Feelin' Good (1965; United Artists)
  • Lena in Hollywood (1966; United Artists)
  • Merry from Lena (1966; United Artists)
  • Soul (1966; United Artists)
  • Lena and Gabor (1970; Skye Records
    Skye Records

    Skye Records was a record label formed in early 1968 by vibist Cal Tjader, guitarist G?bor Szab? and composer Gary McFarland. In total the label released 21 different proper studio albums before Mcfarland's death in 1971....
    ) - with Gábor Szabó
    Gábor Szabó

    G?bor Szab? was a Hungarian people jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Music of Hungary....
  • Harry & Lena (1970; RCA) - with Harry Belafonte
    Harry Belafonte

    Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
  • Nature's Baby (1971; Buddah)
  • Lena & Michel (1975; RCA)
  • Lena: A New Album (1976; RCA)
  • Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981; Qwest) - Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
    Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

    The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance is the latest in a series of awards recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959....
  • The Men in My Life (1988; Three Cherries)
  • We'll Be Together Again (1994; Blue Note)
  • An Evening with Lena Horne (1995; Blue Note) - Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
    Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album

    The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album has been presented since 1977. Until 2001 this award was titled the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance....
  • Being Myself (1998; Blue Note)
  • Seasons of a Life (2005; Blue Note; recorded 1999)

Singles

  • "Stormy Weather" (1943)
  • "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955) #19 U.S. Pop


External links



And she loved soup