It was the final curtain call for actor, playwright and civil rights activist Ossie Davis as a playbill of celebrities and loved ones paid him tribute with tears and laughter at Manhattan’s Riverside Church yesterday.
Mourners included fellow screen and stage stars Danny Glover, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Avery Brooks and Burt Reynolds as well as Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, novelist Alice Walker, poet Maya Angelou, filmmaker Spike Lee.
Davis’ widow, Ruby Dee, his acting partner for nearly six decades, was surrounded by family and friends as she sat near her husband’s flower-draped casket in the standing-room-only church.
“I think that he stood for such integrity and for such grace and power. I think his life and the life of [wife] Ruby Dee are lives that have been bridges to my own. So I felt like I needed to honor that,” said Winfrey.
The Tony Award-nominated actor-writer Davis, 87, died Feb. 4 in Miami Beach.
David and his Dee were instrumental in paving the road for other black actors, and appeared together in 11 stage productions and five movies.
During yesterday’s tribute, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis played the trumpet as the audience, including Davis’ widow, Dee, clapped and swayed to the beat.
Clinton arrived without wife Hillary. Still recovering from major heart surgery, Clinton said he had been stuck in a doctor’s office.
“I’d proudly ride in the back of Ossie Davis’ bus any day,” he said. “I was never in Ossie Davis’ presence when I didn’t want to stand up a little straighter.”
Clinton ended his eulogy by saying, “Thank you, God, for letting us know him.”
The three-hour-long funeral service was tempered by tears and laughter as grandchildren and longtime family friends recalled Davis’ one-liners.
Earl Gates, publisher of Black Enterprise magazine recalled how Davis would repeatedly quip about his health.
“I would ask him, ‘How do you feel?’ Davis would reply, ‘Better than I deserve, and I deserve the best.’ ”
Davis’ friend of 60 years, Harry Belafonte, said, “It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humor, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought.
“But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did.”
Earlier, Dee listened as their seven grandchildren offered memories of Davis, ending with a poem that their grandparents often performed together.
Daughter Hasna Muhammad, inviting the church full of mourners to join their family, pulled a camera to snap a picture of the congregation.
“Sit up straight, get your hair right,” she told the crowd. “You guys in the back squeeze in. Say cheese!” Laughter erupted from the pews.
Broadway actress Eartha Kitt said after the funeral, “There was never enough that he thought he could do to elevate his people.”
Other mourners included former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. Charles Schumer, former Mayor David Dinkins, Time Warner head Richard Parsons and municipal union leader Dennis Rivera.
Davis was hailed not just for his long and distinguished acting career, but as a civil rights activist who participated in the 1963 landmark March on Washington.
Harlem resident, Sidney Wilson, 72, a plumber stood on the steps of the church in the chilled air.
“Ossie Davis was a man all by himself,” Wilson said. “Look at the things he had done. He didn’t sell out. He could have been a richer man but instead he fought for us.”