Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Lena Horne
Lena Horne Facts
| Sign | Cancer |
| Born |
Jun 30, 1917 Brooklyn, New York City |
| Died |
May 9, 2010 Manhattan, New York City |
| Age | Died at 92 |
| Total Facts | 24 |
Leslie Uggams is scheduled to portray her in a musical production "Stormy Weather" at the Pasadena Playhouse (California) starting January 2009.
According to her autobiography, she photographed so light in her initial screen tests that MGM was afraid people would mistake her for a white woman, so they had makeup legend Max Factor create a make-up line for her called "Dark Egyptian", so she could appear as a "Negro" onscreen. Ironically, Hedy Lamarr used this same makeup in White Cargo (1942) when she played a half-caste African native.
Children from first marriage to Louis Jones: Gail Jones (b. 1938), aka Gail Lumet Buckley, and Terry Jones (b. 1939).
Former mother-in-law of director Sidney Lumet. Lumet was married to Horne's daughter Gail Jones (Gail Lumet Buckley).
Grandmother of Jenny Lumet and Amy Lumet.
Her father's name was Edwin F. Horne. Her mother was an actress, Edna Louise Calhoun Scottron.
Her signature song is "Stormy Weather."
In Charles Whiting's book "The Long March On Rome", he reports that she refused to appear before racially segregated US Army audiences in WW2 Italy--since the army was officially segregated, the policy was to have one show solely for white troops and another show solely for black troops. Horne insisted on performing for mixed audiences, and since the US Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she wound up putting on a show for a mixed audience of black US soldiers and white German POWs.
Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1991.
Lives in Manhattan's fabled West Side apartment building, the Apthorp, whose residents include Rosie O'Donnell, Conan O'Brien, Steve Kroft, Cyndi Lauper and Kate Nelligan.
Lost her father, husband and son in one year.
Made her last public appearance in 1999.
Ranked #62 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock N Roll
Received a honorary doctorate from Howard University in 1980.
Received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1989.
Received a Special Tony Award in 1982 for "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music." She had previously been nominated for Broadway's 1958 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Jamaica."
She has a weakness for Godiva chocolate.
She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
She is the mother of journalist and author Gail Lumet Buckley, whose articles have appeared in Vogue Magazine (USA) and The Los Angeles Times (CA, USA); Buckley has researched and authored two books "The Hornes: An American Family" (New American Library, 1986) and "American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm" (Random House, 2001).
She was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6282 Hollywood Boulevard and for Motion Pictures at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
She was branded a "Communist sympathizer" by many right-wing conservatives because of her association with Paul Robeson and her progressive political beliefs (which led her to be blacklisted in the 1950s).
Sought the lead role in the controversial film Pinky (1949), about a black girl who passes for white. 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck decided to take the safe road and choose a white star who had box-office appeal and picked Jeanne Crain. "Pinky," which was a slang term for a light-skinned black, won Crain her only Oscar nomination.
Was born on the same day, and same place (Brooklyn N.Y) as actress Susan Hayward .
While at MGM, her appearances in movies were shot so that they could be cut easily from the film. This was because MGM feared audiences of the day--but especially in the South--would not accept a beautiful black woman in romantic, non-menial roles. Many in the business believed that this was the main reason she lost out on playing the mulatto "Julie" in MGM's remake of Show Boat (1951). Ironically, the role was played by one of Lena's close off-screen friends, Ava Gardner, who practiced for it by singing to Horne's recordings of the songs, and Lena had already appeared in the "Show Boat" segment of Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), in which she appeared as "Julie" singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" (which was, as all her MGM appearances, shot in such a way that it could be easily edited out of the film). Another irony is that she had been invited by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II themselves to play "Julie" in the 1946 Broadway revival of "Show Boat", but had had to refuse because MGM would not release her from her contract.