Halle Berry Brings The Passion And Pain Of DOROTHY DANDRIDGE To HBO MOVIE

Jet, August 23, 1999

Halle Berry has produced and stars in the television movie that brings all of the passion and pain of Dorothy Dandridge's tragic life to the screen.

It took Berry six years to bring the volatile life of the screen legend to television. The result is the HBO film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, a movie that takes audiences from Harlem's legendary Cotton Club to Las Vegas and Hollywood.

Fans who saw Dandridge in Carmen Jones, Sun Valley Serenade and Porgy and Bess were immediately drawn to her phenomenal beauty and commanding screen presence. She was the first Black sex symbol of the screen and, in 1954, became the first Black actress to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That was the result of her sultry role in Carmen Jones. She also was the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Life Magazine.

What fans did not know was just how dramatic and devastating Dandridge's life was off-screen. She was the victim of sexual abuse, racism, failed and abusive relationships and the trauma of being apart from a mentally handicapped child.

"I was mesmerized by her poise and her charisma," Berry said. "I had never seen a Black woman quite like that in a film. She was someone I could admire and aspire to be like. She gave me hope. I thought this was something I would love to do as an actress. But, I also thought Dorothy never got the due she deserved in her lifetime. Someone needed to finally give her that recognition."

Martha Coolidge, who directed the film, was every bit impressed as Berry. "As I researched, I came to realize what an extraordinarily gifted performer she was," Coolidge said. "I knew she was good, but when you look at her work and realize what a beautiful woman she was, how absolutely gifted she was, how special her sensitivity was, it was inevitable that she would be a star."

For a number of years there had been talk about who among the current Black female superstars could bring Dandridge's stow to the screen. Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson were said to be interested in the project. Berry made the rounds of major studios in Hollywood and reportedly was rejected by them all. HBO officials, who have green-lighted previous Black-oriented projects such as films about the Tuskegee Airmen and Josephine Baker, ok'd it.

The movie explores her roller-coaster life from the time she was a teenager and a member of the trio called the Dandridge Sisters performing at the Cotton Club, through her marriage to Harold Nicholas (Obba Babbatunde) of the Nicholas Brothers and the show-biz life she built for herself with the assistance of her manager, Earl Mills (Brent Spiner). Her sex life with Nicholas and other men with whom she became intimate was troubled by a horrible, traumatic situation inflicted on her by a woman who was charged with protecting her.

Still, she persevered. Her voice impressed not only Mills, but audiences all over the world. Her beautiful voice and sexy moves on the stages, resulted in rave reviews and packed clubs around the world with patrons of all races and economic classes.

In a number of the scenes, Berry is a dead-ringer for Dandridge, having mastered a lot of her moves and demeanor. Coolidge said: "There couldn't be a better person than Halle Berry to portray Dorothy Dandridge. She is beautiful in the same way. She also has an incredible sensitivity. She is absolutely driven in the same way and, even today, feels the same outrage at limitations placed on her that Dorothy felt in her day."

The movie also features Loretta Devine, Cynda Williams, LaTanya Richardson, Klans Maria Brandauer, Tamara Taylor and Alexis Carrington.

Brandauer plays Otto Preminger, director of Carmen Jones. He initially was quite reluctant to cast Dandridge in such a demanding role. But, not one to automatically take no for an answer, she came right back, even barging into his office all dressed in character. The two had a love affair with her believing that he'd leave his wife and marry her. He never did.

Her failed marriages (she also married a white nightclub owner) and relationship with Preminger were just some of the sources of her frustration. Almost as bad was the way she wasn't allowed to have the same accommodations as Whites, even when she was headlining.

Beyond those lingering images of a fragile, talented beauty, there's always been something else that has lingered in the minds of her fans. How did Dorothy Dandridge die? She died in 1965 at age 42. There has always been some speculation that she might have committed suicide. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office ruled her death as the result of an overdose of prescription antidepressants. The movie explores the incidents leading up to her death, but allows viewers to draw their own conclusions.