HARRY Belafonte, one of the first black actors to make a mark in Hollywood, will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 8.

The Academy’s board of governors announced the recognition recenly. Honorary Awards will also be made to screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, Japanese director/producer Hayao Miyazaki and Irish actress Maureen O’Hara.

The ceremony, the Academy’s sixth Annual Governors Awards, is scheduled for the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood.

“The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime,” said Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’re absolutely thrilled to honour these outstanding members of our global filmmaking community and look forward to celebrating with them in November.”

Though he made a name as an actor in movies like Carmen Jones, Odds Against Tomorrow and The World, the Flesh and the Devil, Belafonte played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement.

He was a confidante of Martin Luther King, Jr and was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1987. He has worked tirelessly in the fields of education, famine relief and AIDS awareness.

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is an Oscar statuette given “to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry”.

Belafonte, whose mother was Jamaican, was born in Harlem. He spent part of his childhood in Jamaica and was inspired by music from the Caribbean.

His Calypso! album, recorded in 1956, contained the massive hits Day-O and Jamaica Farewell. It was the first album to sell over one million copies.