Illness Thwarts Harry Belafonte’s Plans To Accept Jamaican Order of Merit

By NAN ET Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 19, 2018: Veteran Jamaican-American actor and singer, Harry Belafonte, 91, was all set to accept his Order of Merit (OM) at Kings House, Jamaica on Monday, as part of the National Heroes Day awards ceremony. But unfortunately, a recent illness put a damper on that plan and he wasn’t cleared to travel.

However, Belafonte has been given assurances that he will be traveling to Jamaica at a later date to accept the award.

Belafonte was actually born in Harlem, New York, to a Jamaican mother and a father from Martinique, but spent eight years of his early life in Jamaica, where he attended Primary School.

His 1956 album, ‘Calypso,’ was the first album to sell over a million copies within a year. As a movie actor, Belafonte started in popular films like ‘Carmen Jones,’ opposite Dorothy Dandridge in 1964; ‘Island in The Sun,’ ‘Buck and the Preacher,’ ‘Odds Against Tomorrow’ and ‘Uptown Saturday Night.’