When I first saw Lena Horne perform 'Stormy Weather' in black & white Hollywoodesque opulence it never crossed my mind that behind the beautifully packaged stereotype of a glamorous beauty there might be an activist, much less a woman who had been too often at the receiving end of racism and anti-Communism.

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Born in 1917, Lena Horne started her career in 1933 as a dancer at Harlem's Cotton Club, in the mythical era of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. She worked as a nightclub dancer for several years, until, in 1943, she was spotted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's talent scouts and became the first 'black performer', as many biographies put it, to sign a long-term contract with one of the big Hollywood studios. In fact, Lena Horne was of Afro-American, European, and Native American descent.

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Although a photogenic beauty with a great singing voice, Lena Horne was never given a starring role in any film because of her mixed race. When her skin tone was not lightened by special make up,  she had to play parts that could be easily edited out of the film without affecting the plot, to ensure that the film also appealed to audiences in Southern states, where cinemas would not screen films with non-white performers. Her second marriage, to white pianist Lenny Hayton, at a time when interracial relationships were far from accepted, was considered a provocation by some; indeed, to avoid threats and insults, the couple moved temporarily to Paris.

An outspoken woman, Lena Horne did not fare well during either the first or the second Red Scare. Because of her leftist leniances she was blacklisted and during the McCarthyist 1950s it proved impossible for her to get work in Hollywood. She did, however, continue to perform in nightclubs and record albums, including the classic Porgy and Bess (1959), in which she sang together with Harry Belafonte.

Although in the 1980s Lena Horne, well in her sixties, resumed performing and recording, she had spent much of the 1970s away from the stage and the recording studio, trying to recover from a series of trying losses: first, her father, then her son from her first marriage, Edwin Jones, who died of kidney failure aged 30, and finally her husband Lenny Hayton, who died of a heart attack.

Lena Horne died on 9 May 2010 (sources: the Guardian, Wikipedia, the BBC).

'Stormy Weather', a classic Lena Horne performance.

'Unlucky Woman', sings Lena Horne accompanied by the Teddy Wilson band.