Award - winning actor died peacefully at home , she says . Dee was nominated for an Oscar for her role in ` ` American Gangster '' She and her late husband , Clifton Davis , were important figures in civil rights movement . Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Dee received the Frederick Douglass Award in 1970 from the New York Urban League . Dee became known to a younger generation with roles in several Spike Lee films .
Award - winning actor died peacefully at home , she says . Dee was nominated for an Oscar for her role in ` ` American Gangster '' She and her late husband , Clifton Davis , were important figures in civil rights movement . Dee became known to a younger generation with roles in several Spike Lee films .