Prolific actress and activist Ruby Dee has died at the age of 91. (Via Wikimedia Commons)
Dee's career spanned seven decades — she started in the theater before moving to memorable film work, including an award-winning turn in 1961's "A Raisin In The Sun." (Via Wikimedia Commons / Friedman-Abeles)
Dee is considered a pioneer for African-American women in Hollywood.
She played Mother Sister in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing."
And starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson in 1991's "Jungle Fever."
Over the course of her career, Dee won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Screen Actors Guild Award — and was most recently nominated for an Oscar for her work in 2007's "American Gangster."
In addition to more than 100 on-screen appearances, Dee was very active in the Civil Rights movement, along with her husband, fellow actor Ossie Davis, who died in 2005. (Via YouTube / Witnify)
The couple's life story has been turned into a documentary, "Life's Essentials With Ruby Dee," set to premiere June 22 at Film Life's 18th Annual American Black Film Festival in Manhattan. (Via YouTube / Visionary Project)
Dee and Davis were Kennedy Center Honor recipients in 2004. The pair also received the National Medal of Arts in 1995 and was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame in 1989.
Dee's daughter confirmed to media the actress died peacefully Wednesday at her New Rochelle, New York, home.
