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Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American film and theatre actress, singer, and dancer. She is perhaps best known for being the first African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1954 film Carmen Jones. Dandridge performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters, and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles. In 1959 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Porgy and Bess. She is the subject of the 1999 HBO biographical film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to hotel owner Jack Denison. Dandridge died under mysterious circumstances at age 42

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was from Cleveland, her mother was an aspiring actress named Ruby Dandridge. Ruby had walked out on Dorothy's father, moved into an apartment with a friend, (Geneva Williams) who became instrumental in teaching Dorothy and her sister singing, dancing and piano. They moved to Nashville and were signed with the National Baptist Convention to tour churches throughout the southern states. The Great Depression put a halt to progress and moved to Hollywood. The Dandridge Sisters, as they were know received an unaccredited cameo in the film The Big Broadcast of 1936. They played the Cotton Club where they were a hit and soon toured Europe.

The girls returned to Hollywood, but they eventually split up due in part to Dandridge's increasing desire to have a solo career. In 1942, she married Harold Nicholas, a daughter; Lynn was born a year later. By the time Lynn was two, she noticed that Lynn was not acting normally; soon diagnosed as disabled. Harold was often on the road touring and he did not offer much solace. In 1949, they divorced, Ruby and Geneva looked after Lynn while Dandridge tried to re-establish her career. She still wanted to act in films but she realized that that possibility was slim.

She did not relish the thought of returning to nightclubs, especially in Las Vegas where racism was almost a bad as in the south. The reviews were very good and that would help her get film work at The Mocambo in Hollywood and numerous guest television appearances. MGM offered and Dorothy enthusiastically accepted a role an all black drama called Bright Road. The film opened in April of 1953 to good reviews.

When Dandridge heard that an all Black production of Carmen Jones was being planned, she knew this was the role she had dreamed of. The project was the mastermind of Austrian director Otto Preminger. Carmen Jones was a resounding success and Dandridge was the first Black woman to be nominated in the category of Best Actress. In 1959, came the film Porgy and Bess. She reluctantly accepted but the entire shoot was to be an unhappy one and the reviews were mediocre.

However she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Dorothy's life seemed to unravel later that year. In 1963 she declared bankruptcy, continued to drink heavily, was a very lonely woman and she often sounded disoriented. She was given a prescription antidepressant drug that seemed to lift her spirits.

On September 8, 1965, Dandridge spoke by telephone with friend and former sister-in-law Geraldine "Geri" Branton. Dandridge was scheduled to fly to New York the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East. Branton told biographers that during the long conversation, Dandridge had veered from expressing hope for the future to singing Barbra Streisand's "People" in its entirety to making this cryptic remark moments before hanging up on her: "Whatever happens, I know you will understand." Several hours after her conversation with Branton ended, Dandridge was found dead and naked by her manager, Earl Mills. Two months later, a Los Angeles pathology institute determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. Yet the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office came to a different conclusion: “Miss Dandridge died of a rare embolism—blockage of the blood passages at the lungs and brain by tiny pieces of fat flaking off from bone marrow in a fractured right foot she sustained in a Hollywood gymnasium five days before she died.” She was 42 years old.

On September 12, 1965, a private funeral service was held for Dandridge at the Little Chapel of the Flowers; she was then cremated and her ashes interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

It is unclear beyond reasonable doubt, if Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas is dead or alive. Speculations and unconfirmed reports about her demise in 2003 subsist even to this day. While some claim, she is still in a mental hospital facility in California.There is no accurate information on her welfare after she was made a ward of the state by her mother. She would currently be aged 73 years today.The priceless question that evade a valid answer is; where exactly is the daughter of the late iconic African American actress; Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas? No one seems to know.