That’s right #Oscars audience, STAND UP for Dame Shirley Bassey! She is 76 today and still as gorgeous as she was in this 1960 photo where she is being fitted for a new sheath dress, covered with 156,000 diamante stones (weighing in at 28 pounds), by designer Douglas Darnell. Photo by Peter Hall/Keystone Features/Getty Images.
Dorothy Dandridge presenting an Oscar at New York’s Century Theater on March 30, 1955. She was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Carmen Jones but lost to Grace Kelly who won for Country Girl. Photo: Ebony
Diahann Carroll with designers Bob Mackie and Ray Aghayan as they make adjustments on the cape and dress she wore for the 1975 Academy Awards. Ms. Carroll was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in the film, “Claudine.” Photo: Isaac Sutton for EBONY.
Diana Ross, in a custom satin tuxedo designed by Bob Mackie and his partner, Ray Aghayan, at the Academy Awards on March 27, 1973. Ms. Ross, a Best Actress nominee that year for her role in “Lady Sings the Blues” is flanked by her then husband, Robert Silberstein, and her parents, Ernestine and Fred Ross, Sr. Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage.
Cicely Tyson answers a reporter’s questions on the red carpet as she arrives at the #Oscars on March 27, 1973. Ms. Tyson was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in the film, “Sounder”. She and Diana Ross made history that year as the first Black actresses nominated in the Best Actress category in the same year (Liza Minnelli won for her role in “Cabaret”). I am not sure if he was with Ms. Tyson that evening, but Dance Theater of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell is to her right in this picture. Photo: Frank Diernhammer/Conde Nast Archives.
Sidney Poitier and Nat “King” Cole cutting up at the 1963 #Oscars at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, April 8, 1963. One of my favorite pictures EVER! Photo: Michael Ochs Archives, Corbis.
I hear that Dame Shirley Bassey will make her first appearance on the Academy Awards on February 24th. I can’t wait to see that! Here, she is in her dressing room in London in May 1958, looking almost as good as she does today! Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images.
Harry Belafonte leans against an Oscar statue at the Academy Awards on March 27, 1956. I was going to wait until Oscar night to post this one but… Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images.
Diahann Carroll greeting the legendary photographer Gordon Parks at the 1969 Governor’s Ball at the Academy Awards at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, April 14, 1969. Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage
Michael Jackson and Diana Ross at the 1981 Academy Awards.
Dorothy Dandridge presenting an Oscar at New York’s Century Theater on March 30, 1955. She was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Carmen Jones but lost to Grace Kelly who won for Country Girl. Photo: Ebony
Oscar winner Sidney Poitier and Nat “King” Cole at the 1963 Academy Awards at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, April 8, 1963. This is easily one of my favorite pictures.
