Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/438809
SAGAFTRA.org | Special Issue 2015 | SAG-AFTRA 70 Remembering Life Achievement Honorees We Lost in 2014 R UBY DEE, an actor, writer, activist and SAG Life Achievement Award honoree, died June 11 at the age of 91. Dee, who was best known for her roles in A Raisin in the Sun and Do the Right Thing, received the award with husband Ossie Davis in 2000, making them only the second husband- and-wife team to be so honored. Dee was predeceased by Davis in 2005. As she accepted the award, Dee spoke of the power of the acting profession. "We are artists also, and workers above all. We are image-makers," she said. "Why can't we image-makers become peacemakers too? Why cannot we, in such a time as this, use all the magic of our vaunted powers to lift the pistol from the schoolboy's backpack and replace it with bright images of peace, with images of hope and faith in humankind? Of life lit by some large vision of goodness and beauty and truth?" J AMES GARNER, the 2004 SAG Life Achievement Award honoree, died July 19 at the age of 86. The actor of television and film secured his place in entertainment history as Bret Maverick in TV's Maverick and as private investigator Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files, but less known to the public was his dedication to his union and to helping others. Garner served as a SAG National Board member in 1959 and as the guild's second vice president from 1960 to 1961. A veteran of the Korean War, Garner used his star power to boost the morale of American troops during a 1967 tour of Vietnam. In a Stars and Stripes article published that year, Garner explained that sometimes he would encounter a service member skeptical of his motives. "They might ask if I was over here on some tax write-off, or how much I get paid. When I explain that I'm an ex-rifleman private with the 24th Inf. Div.'s 5th Regimental Combat Team and came over for nothing, everything is OK," he said.