Actress Ruby Dee dies at 91
(Image credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Ruby Dee — an actress with decades of highly acclaimed performances on both stage and screen — passed away Wednesday night of undisclosed causes. She was 91.

After a long string of Broadway performances throughout the 1940s, Dee's breakout film role came as Rae Robinson in 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story. Throughout her career, she alternated between film, television, and theater roles, including the 1959 Broadway debut of A Raisin in the Sun opposite Sidney Poitier, which was adapted for the big screen with the same cast in 1961.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.