Dorothy Dandridge, Halle Berry, Hollywood and Death

…by Jonas E. Alexis

“To act without understanding, and to do so habitually without examination, pursuing the proper path all the life without knowing its nature—this is the behavior of multitudes.” Mencius, Chinese philosopher[1]

Halle Berry, who has recently played Sofia in the third installment of John Wick, has said that she is Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965) reincarnate. Both Berry and Dandridge were born in the same hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. And if you want to understand the kind of movies that Berry has produced over the years, then you have to understand Dandridge. “I believe Dorothy passed the ball to me,” said Berry. “And I say that with such strong feelings of responsibility and humility.”[2]

From the very beginning of her acting career, Dorothy Dandridge always wanted to sell herself in Hollywood in order to make it big. That was one reason why, as film historian James Robert Parish puts it, she “emerged a confident, sexy chanteuse…Still anxious to make a breakthrough in major studio movies, she accepted the role of an erotic jungle princess in Tarzan’s Peril (1951) and played a sports player’s wife in The Harlem Globetrotters (1951).”[3]

Dandridge did become a superstar in Hollywood, but she eventually lost herself. At the early age of forty-two, the actress was found dead and naked on her bathroom floor at her Hollywood apartment. It was declared that she died “as a result of an overdose of drugs used to treat psychiatric depression.”[4] She obviously knew that death was knocking at her door because she left a note saying that her financial possession should go to her mother.[5]

Dandridge, like the majority of actors and actresses in Hollywood, was taking antidepressant drugs. This was a sign which showed that she was either not happy about what she was doing or that shame eventually took a toll on her. The concluding fact is that Dandridge sold herself for money and fame, and she became the first “African-American” sizzling sex symbol onscreen, “a dream goddess of the fifties.”

But the goddess got nothing but pain, suffering, and a miserable death at the end of her life. In other words, she was juiced by Hollywood, the very industry which has a history of juicing people and spitting them out whenever they are no longer useful.

In fact, it can easily be argued that Hollywood is largely a huge Zionist juicy factory that sucks the life out of the Goyim and spit out the pulp. People like Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, and Philip Seymour Hoffman could have been decent individuals, serving their families, saving lives and making sacrifices, helping their fellow human beings, and perhaps ultimately embracing Logos as the ultimate metaphysical substratum in the universe, which probably would have made a significant improvement in their own personal lives.

Yet after working for many years in the juicy factory, after amassing millions upon millions of dollars, after seducing multiplied millions of innocent and unsuspecting viewers (both young and old), those same celebrities suddenly wake up and realize that they have been scammed and lied to—not materially or economically but morally and spiritually.

They then began to realize two things. They discovered very quickly that money cannot be a substitute for the moral order. (Remember the Beatles’ song, “Money Can’t Buy Me Love”?) Man is a moral and spiritual being living inside a physical body. Whenever that moral and spiritual dimension is denied or suppressed by sophisticated means, man becomes an existential threat both to himself and to others.

Dandridge was a threat to herself, and though she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in Carmen Jones, nothing could have been substituted for her unhappiness and tragic or pathetic death.

So when Halle Barry declared that she wanted to channel Dorothy Dandridge, then she obviously was planning to project pain and suffering to both her audience and herself. In fact, like Dandridge, Berry also had to sell herself for money and fame. With respect to her steamy sex movie Monster’s Ball, Berry declared:

“There was no real direction in the screenplay, it just had to be animalistic. We just went for it. We both agreed to be uninhibited with our bodies.”

It was no coincidence that some reviewers pinned the movie as pornographic.[6] “It was rumored that Monster’s Ball nearly earned ‘X’ rating from the Motion Picture Association of America because the scene was too sexually explicit. The scene was trimmed to allow it to be shown in more theaters, as an ‘X’ rating would have kept it out of the majority of movie theaters in the country.”[7]

Even actress Angela Bassett thought that the scene in the movie was too graphic. “In an interview, Bassett reportedly claimed that she had been offered the role but turned it down because she thought it would make her look like a prostitute on film or perpetuate what she felt was a stereotypical depiction of an African-American woman.”[8]

Miles Willis, host of a jazz radio program called Milestone, encouraged people to boycott the film. But again Berry wanted to play a part in Monster’s Ball because she obviously thought that it would advance her career, and film critics couldn’t be happier. Stephen Farber of Movieline declared: “She’s tried to shed a sexpot image in earlier films, but this is by far her most electrifying work to date.”[9] What Farber was indirectly saying was that if you want to produce an ‘electrifying work,” then you have to sell yourself. Bassett didn’t want to do that, so the industry got Berry in her place.

If we take Bassett’s view to its logical extension, Halle Berry was being used as a prostitute or whore in Monster’s Ball. She sold herself for money, power, and fame, but perhaps she forgot to realize that by selling herself, she was indirectly sending a message to promising actresses like herself. Actresses, Berry seemed to be saying, have to be prostitutes in order to make it big in the industry. If you think this is farfetched, then listen to Jewish actress Rachel Weisz, who said unequivocally:

“In some way acting is prostitution, and Hollywood Jews don’t want their own women to participate. Also, there’s an element of Portnoy’s Complaint—they all fancy Aryan blondes.”[10]

If you haven’t read Portnoy’s Complaint, then do so promptly, particularly if you’re trying to understand the cultural dynamics in Hollywood. Portnoy’s Complaint is an explicit novel written by Jewish writer Philip Roth. “Through fucking,” Alexander Portnoy declared, “I will discover America.”

Portnoy, a narcissist and a lecher who is obsessed with screwing up blondes sexually, puts the issue in proper perspective when he says, “Put the ID back in YID! Liberate this nice Jewish boy’s libido.”[11] Nicole Scherzinger understood that point very clearly. She concurred:

“To be honest with you, I sometimes wish I were more slutty. I’d probably be a lot more successful if I were… This is such a tough industry, you know. To make it, you really have to sell your soul to the devil.”[12]

The Moral Law and Tragic Death in Hollywood

The simple fact is that when the moral law is not your guide, all hell breaks loose. But you essentially don’t break the moral law—the moral law will eventually break you. In fact, the moral law has always inflicted vengeance on its lawbreakers—from Jimmy Hendrix and all the way to Whitney Houston.

The moral law is ingrained in human beings, and living a life without the moral law is like putting your head under a semi-truck for fun. Hollywood stars like Pier Angeli, Pedro Armendariz, Don Red Barry, Scotty Beckett, Richard Farnsworth, Jon Hall, Rusty Hamer, Freddi Prinze, George Sanders, Peter Duel, Gig Young, among others, have all tried it, and it always ended up in one disaster after another. Actress Clara Blandick wrote this note before she overdosed herself:

“I am now about to make the great adventure. I cannot endure this agonizing pain any longer. It is all over my body. Neither can I face the impending blindness. I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Parish writes: “Dressed in a royal blue bathrobe for the ‘occasion,’ and surrounded by memorabilia from her lengthy career, Clara swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills. To ensure that she would expire, she fastened a plastic bag over her head, and then lay down to wait for death. What a pathetic end for the sturdy, no-nonsense Auntie Em.”[13]

Actor Charles Boyer also overdosed himself and later died the same day. And Dana Plato’s death was not a surprise: “To many Hollywood observers, it was no surprise when 35-year-old- Dana Plato died of a drug overdose in the fall of 1999. Her life had been going badly for years, long before she ingested a fatal mix of painkillers and Valium.”[14]

The ending of actor John Bower’s life was an interesting phenomenon: “He ended his troubled life after attending a party one evening in November 1936 by walking into the Pacific Ocean and deliberately letting himself drown.”[15]

Actress Germaine Lefebvre, after severe depressions, deliberately “jumped from the window of her apartment.”[16]

Actress Peg Entwistle “told her uncle that she was going to the local Hollywoodland drugstore. Instead, she walked up the nearby road that led to the big electric-light sign. Reaching the towering letters, she stopped beneath the ‘H.’ Peg removed her coat and placed it neatly next to her purse. Then she slowly climbed up the electrician’s ladder on the 50-foot-high ‘H.’ Partway up, one of her shoes fell off. Finally reaching the top of the giant letter, Peg jumped from it and plunged to her death.”[17]

Peg left a suicide note which read, “I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain.”[18]

A similar situation happened to actress Carole Landis. She wrote in her suicide note:

“‘Dearest Mommie, I’m sorry, really sorry to put you through this. But there is no way to avoid it…’ Having written this deeply touching farewell note, the pretty, 29-year-old actress Carole Landis, who had attempted suicide several times before, finally got her death wish through an overdose of sleeping pills.”[19]

Actor Freddie Prinze is another classic example:

“He was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. He relied on psychotherapy, liquor, cocaine, and Quaaludes, but nothing seemed to put his chaotic existence back into order. He told his pals, ‘Life isn’t worth living.’

“Freddie would shock them by pulling out an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver, pointing it at his temple, and squeezing the trigger. (He had first attempted suicide at 17, when he and a girlfriend split up.)”

Finally, Prinze shot himself, and left the following note: “I must end it. There’s no hope left…”[20]

The trail has no end: “David Strickland hung himself at age 29 when he decided that life was too much to bear.” Actress Lupe Velez wrote: “I am getting to the place where the only thing I am afraid of is life itself….People think that I like to fight. I have to fight for everything. I’m so tired of it all….”

Velez, then, decided to put an end to all of this: “Putting on her favorite blue silk pajamas, she sat down on her oversized bed and swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills. The next morning, when her housekeeper couldn’t awaken her, a physician was summoned; he pronounced Lupe dead.”

Does that ring a bell? This is very similar to the death of Heath Ledger. After actor Gig Young took his own life, one friend declared, “I think he probably had his own private hell going on inside him.”[21]

In 2009, well-known actor David Carradine “was found hanging by a nylon rope in a Bangkok hotel room closet Thursday morning… the actor’s neck and genitals were found bound with rope.”

Perhaps Marilyn Monroe was right when she noted that “Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”

We hope that Halle Berry returns to the moral law. The sad story is that young and naïve people view people like Berry as role models. In other words, whether Berry likes it or not, whatever she produces on the big screen, young people are inevitably going to emulate it.

In short, by channeling the spirit of Dorothy Dandridge, who prostrated herself before the industry for money and fame, Berry has contributed to the demise of the black family, which used to be pretty strong even in the 1920s and 30s.[22]

But Berry is not the only person who has emulated Dandridge. Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Tasha Smith, among others, have all channeled the spirit of Dorothy Dandridge in one way or another. Yet as DMX himself put it, these actresses and prostitute don’t know that the industry virtually has nothing to do with talent:

“The industry doesn’t have to do with talent; it’s about playing the game… The industry—if you ain’t got a strong mind—will break you down, [and] it’s a matter of time. The industry vultures with nothing to feast on…The industry plays in the dirt, stays in the dirt—test the wrong one in the industry and you will get hurt. The industry wanted, dead or alive, new artists to sell their souls to survive. The industry don’t give a fuck about you! But the industry couldn’t make a dime without you!”

DMX has a point here, and some in the industry would indirectly concur that the industry wants them to be prostitutes and whores. For example, Mila Kunis admitted that one of her producers felt threatened “when I refused to pose semi-naked on the cover of a men’s magazine to promote our film. I was no longer willing to subject myself to a naïve compromise that I had previously been willing to. ‘I will never work in this town again?’ I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said ‘no.’” She added:

“The older I got and the longer I worked in this industry, the more I realized that it’s bullshit! And, worse, that I was complicit in allowing it to happen.”[23]

If you think Kunis is just overeating, then listen to Clive Barker, producer and film director of movies like Hellraiser, declared:

“Because I make horror movies I have to offend people. That’s my responsibility, to kill as many people as possible…And some of that truth may not be palatable to anybody. My responsibility is not to give a fuck about that. My responsibility is not to care.”[24]

Barker admitted that he was influenced by none other than Aleister Crowley, the British black magician and Satanist who was known as The Beast. Barker said:

“Yeats then led me to the Golden Dawn, and from the Golden Dawn to Aleister Crowley—and to a whole metaphysical system based on magic. Which I took terribly, terribly seriously. I was trying these experiments, putting things under my pillow in the belief they would influence my dreams in certain directions.”[25]

Billy Bob Thornton Meets Augustine

Billy Bob Thornton subtly or implicitly admitted that the sex scene with Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball ended up destroying his marriage with Angelina Jolie, who herself is a Hollywood wrecking ball. Thornton:

“If you are an actor, even doing a Disney movie or cartoon voices, you could still be away from each other for six months. Look how it applied to me. I go away and do a film like Monster’s Ball with a very explicit sex scene with Halle Berry. She is one of the most beautiful women in the world and I am talking on the phone to my wife, and she says, ‘What have you been doing today?’ And I say, ‘Oh, I did that sex scene with Halle Berry.’

“You are then asked if you actually touch her. I say, ‘I had to – it’s in the scene.’ Other people’s situations are hard, with areas of doubt. But if you are a thousand miles from home on a film set simulating sex with a beautiful woman, it’s even tougher. I blew my marriage to Angelina.”

All these people inexorably prove that Augustine was right when he said:

“Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but what is worse, as many masters as he has vices.”[26]

• [1] James Legge, translator, The Works of Mencius (New York: Dover Publication, 1985), 451.
• [2] Melissa Ewey Johnson, Halle Berry: A Biography (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009), 55.
• [3] James Robert Parish, The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 299.
• [4] Donald Bogle, Dorothy Dandridge (New York: Amistad Press, 1997), 551.
• [5] Parish, The Hollywood Book of Death, 301.
• [6] Johnson, Halle Berry, 62.
• [7] Ibid.
• [8] Ibid., 62.
• [9] Ibid., 63.
• [10] Emma Forrest, “Rachel Weisz,” IndexMagazine.com, 2001; see also Danielle Berrin, “Rachel Weisz Climbs the Charts,” Jewish Journal, October 22, 2009.
• [11] Quoted in E. Michael Jones, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit and Its Impact on World History (South Bend: Fidelity Press, 2008), 981.
• [12] “What’s new Pussycat? Nicole Sherzinger on being a global pop star and conquering an eating disorder,” The Independent, March 10, 2013.
• [13] Parish, The Hollywood Book of Death, 294.
• [14] Ibid., 315.
• [15] Ibid., 295.
• [16] Ibid., 298.
• [17] Ibid., 305.
• [18] Ibid., 306.
• [19] Ibid., 312.
• [20] Ibid., 320.
• [21] Ibid., 335.
• [22] See Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals (New York: Encounter Books, 2005).
• [23] Ezinne Ukoha, “Mila Kunis Pens Essay on Hollywood Sexism, And How It Has Threatened Her Career,” Hollywood Reporter, November 2, 2016.
• [24] Quoted in David Ehrenstein, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood (New York: William Morrow, 1998), 265-266.
• [25] Quoted in Douglas E. Winter, Clive Barker: The Dark Fantastic (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 58.
• [26] For a cultural history on this, see E. Michael Jones, Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control (South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 2000).

Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the book, Kevin MacDonald’s Metaphysical Failure: A Philosophical, Historical, and Moral Critique of Evolutionary Psychology, Sociobiology, and Identity Politics. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

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