She later grew to become concerned with director Otto Preminger in the course of the filming of Carmen Jones. Although the position made her a star, Preminger’s management over her profession proved damaging.
He refused to let her settle for secondary roles, insisting she solely settle for leads – provides that by no means got here.
“Nobody will ever understand how I wept,” she wrote of that point. “Within the morning I rose like an automaton… chilly steak. Chilly cucumbers. Chilly.”
Regardless of success, Dandridge confronted racist scrutiny. She sued Confidential journal in 1957 for printing false claims about her personal life. Movies reminiscent of Island within the Solar and Tamango – which featured interracial romance – sparked backlash.
Her profession declined, and she or he returned to the nightclub circuit.
By 1965, Dandridge was impoverished and emotionally depleted. She died on September 8 of an overdose of antidepressants, with simply $2.14 in her checking account. Some imagine it was suicide.
“No matter occurs, I do know you’ll perceive,” she advised her pal Geraldine Branton days earlier than.
In 2002, Halle Berry devoted her Oscar to Dandridge.
The legacy she left behind was not simply in her expertise, however in her braveness to defy an business that by no means actually welcomed her.