Harry Belafonte dies at 96, reports say. The trailblazing singer and actor became one of America's endearing and enduring civil-rights activists. Belafonte will be remembered as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century, as a singer, musician and actor. But his civil-rights work in the 1960s and his anti-apartheid work in the 1980s will be just as poignant. Source 4t.