Josephine Baker

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Birth Name: Freda Josephine McDonald

Born: 3 June 1906 Died: 12 April 1975

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 8"

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187 votes

Sex symbol of every decade(female) (44 items)
list by Natalia

Published 15 years, 10 months ago

33 comments

127 votes

Beauties of the 20th century (167 items)
list by Nusch

Published 3 weeks, 4 days ago

6 comments

100 votes

Black Actress Icons (776 items)
list by william maxey 83

Published 12 years, 6 months ago

5 comments

76 votes

Actresses Sex Symbols of the 20s, 30s (32 items)
list by xolmis

Published 11 years, 11 months ago

3 comments

68 votes

Pin-Ups (1930s) (19 items)
list by Danie

Published 17 years, 8 months ago

6 comments

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Josephine Baker Videos

Movie Legends - Josephine Baker

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Added 13 years ago

Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar

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Added 5 years ago

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Description: Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine 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. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.[1] 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 v Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine 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. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.[1]

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 the city. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.

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.

She was known for aiding the French Resistance during World War II. After the war, she was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. Baker sang: "I have two loves, my country and Paris."

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.

On 23 August 2021, it was announced that in November 2021 she will be interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the first black woman to receive one of the highest honors in France. ... (more)