Lena Horne, a show-stopping beauty who battled racism in a frustrating effort to become Hollywood's first black leading lady, has died, according to media reports Monday. She was 92.The New York Times, quoting her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley, said Horne died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York.Hospital officials were not available for comment.Horne went to Hollywood in the late 1930s and while she never became a major movie star, she is credited with breaking the ground for black actresses to get bigger roles in Hollywood.Horne had a stage persona that was mysterious, elegant, haughty and sexy, and it helped her become an enchanting nightclub performer who made "Stormy Weather" her signature song.Known as the "Negro Cinderella" early in her career, she was as complex as she was beautiful. She had a reputation for coldness and insecurity, and her career frustrations led to bitterness.
- 5/10/2010
- backstage.com
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