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Lena Horne

Celebrity

Lena Horne: Biography

Lena horne
3 photos
  • Birth Name: Lena Mary Calhoun Horne
  • Birth Place: Brooklyn, NY
  • Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 06/30/1917, Cancer
  • Date of Death: 05/09/2010
  • Profession: Singer; actor
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Lena Horne Fast Facts:
  • Quit school when she was 14; got her first stage job at 16, as a chorus girl at Harlem's Cotton Club.
  • Made her Broadway debut in 1934 and her film debut in an all-black musical titled The Duke Is Tops in 1938.
  • Billed as Helena Horne, made her recording debut in 1936, singing "That's What Love Did to Me" and "I Take to You" with the Noble Sissle Society Orchestra.
  • A longtime friend of singer-activist Paul Robeson, she was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
  • The 333-performance run of Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-82 holds the record for the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history.
  • Received a Kennedy Center Honors tribute in 1984, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989 and a posthumous tribute by Halle Berry at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011.
  • Was the former mother-in-law of director Sidney Lumet, who was married to her daughter, Gail, from 1963 to 1978.
  • Lena Horne Relationships:
  • Gail Jones Lumet Buckley - Daughter
  • Louis J. Jones - Ex-husband
  • Edwin Fletcher Horne Jr. - Father
  • Edwin Fletcher ('Teddy') Jones - Son
  • Edna Louise Scottron Horne - Mother
  • Lennie Hayton - Husband (deceased)
  • Lena Horne Awards:
  • 1981 Grammy: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance - Winner
  • 1995 Grammy: Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female - Winner
  • 1958 Tony: Actress (Musical) - Nominee
  • 1981 Tony: Special Award - Winner
  • 1985 Emmy: Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program - Nominee
  • 1971 Emmy: Outstanding Single Program - Variety or Musical - Nominee

Photos

Lena Horne, Bill Cosby Ron Galella/WireImage.com
Lena Horne Martin Mills/Getty Images
Lena Horne AFP/Getty Images
more Lena Horne photos (3 total photos)
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