Ossie Davis gave wise elders a deep baritone and an approachable dignity that made us want to listen. That fatherly presence could become an excuse to give him too little else to play.
Fi1m perspective
Ossie Davis's voice makes us listen before we have decided what to make of the man speaking. As Da Mayor, the neighbourhood elder in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), he brings a fatherly warmth to a film full of disagreement. We felt an immediate affection for him because his deep baritone gives the character dignity without making him remote. The neighbours cannot even agree about the pictures on a pizzeria wall. Davis is worth attending to among them, but Lee has plenty of other people who expect to be heard.
It is easy to let those elder roles obscure the work that came before. Davis made his film debut alongside Sidney Poitier in No Way Out (1950), then wrote and starred in the stage satire Purlie Victorious (1961). His feature directing debut was Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970). The actor later called upon to supply good judgement had also written a leading role for himself and taken charge behind the camera. His long collaboration with Ruby Dee, on stage and screen, belongs in that wider picture of his work.
From the late 1980s, Lee repeatedly cast him as a community elder or moral voice. Davis's vocal authority also found work in Malcolm X (1992). The risk is that the familiar father figure arrives with wisdom already assumed, leaving the actor little to discover. We want a part to ask more of him than sounding right. That reservation concerns the casting as much as the acting: a dignified presence is useful, but it can make thin writing too easy to accept.
In Do the Right Thing, the pleasure is in hearing that voice among neighbours who have their own claims on our attention. A few conversations run long; the performances, humour and force of Lee's filmmaking make the time worthwhile. Davis's warmth gives us a particular reason to care about someone within that ensemble. Start there, and do not mistake a fatherly manner for a promise of a quiet evening.
Biography
Ossie Davis was an American actor, director, writer and activist. Born Raiford Chatman Davis on 18 December 1917 in Cogdell, Georgia, he attended Howard University before joining the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. He made his Broadway debut in 1946 in Jeb.
Davis frequently collaborated with his wife, actress Ruby Dee, whom he married in 1948. Their stage work included A Raisin in the Sun. On screen he appeared in films such as The Hill (1965) and several directed by Spike Lee, including School Daze (1988) and Do the Right Thing (1989), in which he played Da Mayor.
Later roles included appearances in Malcolm X (1992), Grumpy Old Men (1993), The Client (1994), Dr. Dolittle (1998) and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). Davis and Dee received the National Medal of Arts in 1995 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004. He died on 4 February 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida.
