Dorothy Dandridge, Part 2: Hollywood's First Black Leading Lady — Island in the Sun, Porgy and Bess, and the Promise Hollywood Couldn't Keep

Podcast: When They Were Making It · Patrick Rankin

Opublikowano: 2026-08-18

By 1955, Dorothy Dandridge had done what Hollywood once seemed determined to make impossible — become a genuine leading lady, carry a major studio picture, and earn a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards. But after Carmen Jones, the breakthrough Hollywood celebrated would become a career it had no idea how to sustain. Part 2 of our two-part series on Dorothy Dandridge begins on Oscar night in 1955, with Dandridge seated alongside Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, and Jane Wyman as the first Black woman ever nominated for Best Actress. A new contract with Twentieth Century-Fox seemed to promise th...