Harry Belafonte dead: Trailblazing Caribbean-American pop star dies of heart failure aged 96

Belafonte’s breakthrough album Calypso became the LP by a single performer to sell a million copies, spending 31 weeks at no.1 which remains the fourth-longest run in Billboard chart history.

Belfonte’s soaring “Day O” in the 1950s dockworker’s lament “Banana Boat” brought calypso to the US and made him a star, but surgery to remove a node on his vocal cords in the 60s reduced his voice to a whisper.

Far from silenced, Belafonte devoted even more of his time to tireless activism, working at the forefront of the US civil rights movement alongside friend Martin Luther King Jr. and coordinating Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the United States.

In the 1980s, Belafonte spearheaded the charity hit “We Are the World” which featured stars Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Diana Ross and raised over $63million ($156million today).

As a goodwill ambassador for Unicef and founder of an Aids foundation, Belafonte received an Academy Award for his humanitarian work.

He told the New York Times in 2001: “I've got to be a part of whatever the rebellion is that tries to change all this."

The anger is a necessary fuel. Rebellion is healthy."

Born Harold George Bellanfanti in New York's Harlem neighbourhood, he moved to his family’s native Jamaica before returning to New York to attend high school.

Describing his father, a Martinique-born chef, as an abusive drunk who abandoned him and his mother, Belafonte joined the Navy as a young man in World War Two.

On his return, Belafonte found work as a janitor and a stagehand at the American Negro Theatre before securing roles and studying with Marlon Brando and Sidney Poitier.

In 1954, Belafonte appeared in ‘Island in the Sun’ where his character entertained a relationship with a white woman played by Joan Fontaine, which reportedly led to threats of theatre burnings in the South.

He also appeared on Broadway in ‘Almanac’, winning a Tony Award, and in the movie ‘Carmen Jones’ in 1954.

The first Black Performer to win a major Emmy in 1960 with his appearance on a television variety special, Belafonte also won Grammy Awards in 1960 and 1965 and received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2000 where he used the platform to voice frustration at the trials and tribulations of Black artists in show business.

In 1994, Belafonte was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Singing provided Belafonte a platform for political commentary.

In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he said of music: "It gave me a chance to make political commentary, to make social statements, to talk about things that I found that were unpleasant - and things that I found that were inspiring."

A campaigner into his twilight years, Belafonte called President George W. Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world” in 2006, was outspoken on race and income equality in his lobbying of President Barack Obama during his time in office, and he was co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.

In 2018, Belafonte sought doctor’s permission to make a spine-tingling appearance in ‘BlackkKlansman’, portraying an older civil rights leader.

The film’s director, Spike Lee, told Deadline: “I said to the crew, ‘when you come to the set tomorrow, I want you to have a suit on a tie, wear your Sunday best.

“If you dress lazy, don’t come to work, because we have a very special guest.”

Belafonte was married three times. He and his first wife Marguerite Byrd had two children, including actress-model Shari Belafonte. He also had two children with second wife Julia Robinson, a former dancer.