RUBY DEE
Past Gem: A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

These days, 83-year-old Dee routinely plays steel-willed matriarchs, like the one that this year earned the actress her first-ever Oscar nomination for American Gangster. Five and six decades ago, however, Dee often played supportive wives, like Ruth Younger, the spouse of Sidney Poitier's character in this adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's landmark play. Dee, Poitier, and the other stars reprised their Broadway roles as a striving black family that gets a shot at a better life.