Skip to main content

Lena Horne

View
@ National Portrait Gallery

Description

Combining talent, beauty, and steely determination, singer and actress Lena Horne challenged racial barriers to emerge as one of the most popular entertainers of her generation. Following her debut as a dancer at Harlem's Cotton Club, Horne found work as a big-band vocalist. Her subsequent success as a nightclub singer led to a Hollywood audition, and she became the first African American to secure a long-term contract when she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942. After starring in the all-black musicals Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, Horne found her screen opportunities limited when she refused to accept stereotypical roles. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era, she succeeded in rebuilding her career and went on to take an active part in the civil rights movement. Horne's crowning achievement came in 1981, when her critically acclaimed one-woman show earned a special Tony Award.
Type:
Image
Format:
Gelatin Silver Print
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
View Original At:

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution