# Harry Belafonte dead at 96 (4/25/2023)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies, celebrity-death, music\
**Created:** [April 25, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169 "2023-04-25T13:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169/21 "2023-04-27T00:54:16Z")

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My mother described seeing him in concert when he was young. She practically drooled as she described his unbuttoned shirt with his chest on display. (I don’t blame her. I’ve seen Carmen Jones and he had a BOD.)

Anyway, I’ll always love him best for the Muppet Show appearance (which I watched last night in his honor), but this is the first place I ever heard his voice…[.this duet with Marlo Thomas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKqUltWaJJ0&ab_channel=HarryBelafonte-Topic) on the Free To Be You And Me album. The album was born only weeks after I was, but I think I was three or four when I first heard it, in our family room with the shag carpeting and dark wood paneling. 🙂

(Something I noticed even as a little kid…at the tail-end, you can hear Marlo squeak “yay!” and Harry chuckle a bit.)

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**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169/22 "2023-04-30T00:32:36Z")

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I just watched my DVD of The World, the Flesh and the Devil  
(1958) again. Excellent.

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**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169/23 "2023-04-30T00:36:12Z")

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Pretty sure my sister had that one too. Certainly I remember several of those songs.

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**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-belafonte-dead-at-96-4-25-2023/983169/24 "2023-04-30T01:41:15Z")

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In his honor, I dug out an old DVD of his appearance on the Muppet Show and watched it.

Harry Belafonte and Fozzy Bear doing the Banana Boat song is a strange and wonderful thing indeed.

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