Dorothy Dandridge

Halle Berry played Dandridge in the made for TV movie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). Haylie is currently working on her debut album, expected to hit stores next year. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6719 Hollywood Blvd. She has sung songs for soundtracks like "Girl In The Band" (from The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack), "A Whatever Life" (from the Stuck In The Suburbs soundtrack), and "One In This World" (from A Cinderella Story soundtrack). She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. Haylie too can sing, like her sister Hilary. Modern analysts believe that she may have suffered from manic depression. Her mother is the producer Susan Duff.

In 1965, Dandridge was found dead in her home of an overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. She was born in Houston, Texas. In 1957 she made Island in the Sun and in 1959 Porgy and Bess. She played a popular-teen stereotype named Summer in the 2004 independent film Napoleon Dynamite. Despite the nomination, she had to go to Italy to make her next movie, Tamango, in 1956. She has also appeared on another Disney Channel show, That's So Raven. She wrote two songs for her sister's album Metamorphosis, "Sweet Sixteen" and "Inner Strength", and she also sings with Hilary on a 2004 cover of The Go-Gos song "Our Lips Are Sealed". For this performance, she received an Academy Award nomination. Haylie Katherine Duff (born February 19, 1985) is an American actress and pop music singer, who has appeared in several episodes of Lizzie McGuire, which stars her sister Hilary Duff.

In 1954, Dandridge was cast in Carmen Jones, the remake of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. During this period, she starred in several "soundies", video films designed to be displayed on juke boxes, including Paper Doll by the Mills Brothers and Cow Cow Boogie. All of her early roles were stereotypical parts for African American actresses, but her singing ability brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. She did not receive another role until 1940, when she appeared in Four Shall Die.

Her first on-screen appearance was as an extra in a 1935 Our Gang short, Teacher's Beau. Dorothy first important role was a small part in the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races in 1937. Dandridge began singing in her church's choir and, with the prodding of her mother, moved to Hollywood. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was the first African American to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 - September 8, 1965) was an American actress.