RUBY DEE, THE WOMAN WHO ACTED IN THE MOVIE “AMERICAN GANGSTER”, IS DEAD.

Ruby Dee, a popular actress and civil rights activist who earned an Oscar nomination for playing Denzel Washington‘s mother in the top epic film American Gangster…see more

has died at age 91.

The actress passed away peacefully at her home in New York on Wednesday. Ruby Dee was reportedly surrounded by family and friends at the time.

Ruby Dee, who was born in 1924 and began her on-screen acting career in the mid-1940s.

In 2007, she played Mama Lucas in the gritty film American Gangster. The movie, which starred Denzel Washington as crime and drug lord Frank Lucas, earned Ruby Dee, 83 at the time, her first and only Oscar nomination which she lost. She earned a total of six Emmy nominations throughout her career.