Talk:Ossie Davis/Archives/2016

Name, and Sidney Poitier

The story of Davis' name, at least as it is currently laid out, would seem to imply that "Raiford Chatman Davis" was his *intended* birth name, but that his *actual* birth name (and the name he used for the rest of his life) was indeed "Ossie Davis". I don't know if that's *true*, mind you, but that's what the story seems to imply. Unfortunately, the reference for the story of Ossie Davis' name is IMDb, which features user-gerenated content and is generally not considered a usable source for Wikipedia citations. In that light, unless a better reference can be found, I'm not sure this story should stay.

Elsewhere in the article, there are numerous unattributed statements, but the one that stuck out for me was the assertion that in choosing roles, Davis followed the example set by Sidney Poitier. This seems dubious to me -- for one thing, Davis worked for years as a theater actor before Poitier came along, as he was ten years older than Poitier. Is there any source that backs up the idea that Davis explicitly looked to Poitier as a role model? Everyone But You (talk) 03:41, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

What is left out (a critical point) is Davis' play writing Legacy. He wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the play "Purly Victorious", co-starring his wife Ruby Dee, and Godfrey Cambridge. The play became a movie, and later revived on Broadway, simply renamed "Purly", starring Melba Moore. --12.150.181.20 (talk) 19:08, 7 January 2016 (UTC)Veryverser

Age or date wrong

If Ossie Davis was born October 10, 1910, and he died February 4, 2005, wouldn't that put his age at 94 instead of 87? Heatherrock74 (talk) 02:17, 17 December 2016 (UTC)

@Heatherrock74: Thank you for pointing this out. Some dates got changed; they've been corrected. —C.Fred (talk) 02:22, 17 December 2016 (UTC)