Ray Charles
- Category : Entertain-Music-Composer/Arranger
- Type : GE
- Profile : 2/4 - Hermit / Opportunist
- Definition : Split - Small (18,27,54)
- Incarnation Cross : RAX The Vessel of Love 3
Categories
Biography
American musician, a singer, composer and pianist, a 12-time Grammy winner. Blind from age six, assumed from glaucoma, he was orphaned at 15 when his mother died in 1946. He attended a school in which the black and white kids were segregated in spite of the fact that they could not see each other's skin color. He remembered his mom's voice, "You're blind, you ain't dumb. You lost your sight, not your mind," and he learned to do everything for himself, including walking the streets of New York. An R&B singer among the finest, he was an outstanding performer and recording artist.
Charles moved to Los Angeles in 1950 and began his professional recording career, signing his contract with Atlantic Records in 1952. In 1954, he formed his own band and a year later topped the charts for a single in the R&B category. His long career, in which he fused rhythm and blues, gospel, rock, and jazz brought many rewards and awards.
In 1964 he was arrested on heroin charges and he checked into a rehab center in California. Despite his blindness, he loved playing chess.
Charles had three marriages; twelve kids with as many as seven women. In December 2003, he underwent hip replacement surgery, after which he was diagnosed with acute liver disease.
The much-acclaimed musician died at age 73 on Thursday, June 10, 2004 at 11:35 AM local time in Beverly Hills, California, his publicist said. The cause was of complications from liver disease.
