Josephine Baker, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Josephine Baker

American-born French dancer, singer, and actress

Date of Birth: 03-Jun-1906

Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Date of Death: 12-Apr-1975

Profession: actor, singer, street artist, vedette, model, dancer, film actor, jazz musician

Nationality: United States, France

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About Josephine Baker

  • Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French JosĂ©phine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist.
  • Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France.
  • Baker was the first African-American to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri ÉtiĂ©vant.During her early career Baker was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris.
  • Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris.
  • Her costume, consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas, became an iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s.
  • Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the “Black Venus”, the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess".
  • Born in St.
  • Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S.
  • citizenship and became a French national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937.
  • She raised her children in France.
  • "I have two loves, my country and Paris", Baker once said, and she sang: «J'ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris».She was known for aiding the French Resistance during World War II.
  • After the war, she was awarded the Croix de guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the LĂ©gion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States and is noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
  • In 1968 she was offered unofficial leadership in the movement in the United States by Coretta Scott King, following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
  • After thinking it over, Baker declined the offer out of concern for the welfare of her children.

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