Singer, actress and civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln died Saturday in New York, her brother said. She was 80.

ADVERTISEMENT

Lincoln's brother David Wooldridge announced her death, The New York Times said. No cause of death was reported.

Lincoln recorded more than 20 albums including "Straight Ahead,""You Gotta Pay the Band" and her 1956 debut, "Affair ... a Story of a Girl in Love."

As an actress, she appeared in feature films including "For Love of Ivy" (1968), "Nothing But a Man" (1964), "The Girl Can't Help It" and director Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues" (1990). She guest-starred on TV series including "All in the Family," "Mission: Impossible" and "Marcus Welby, M.D."

Lincoln was active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Times said.

Born Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago Aug. 6, 1930, and raised in Michigan, Lincoln was the second-youngest of 12 children. In the 1950s, she sang in nightclubs in Hawaii, and then went to Los Angeles.

After working with drummer Max Roach on her second album, "That's Him," Lincoln collaborated with Roach on "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" -- which the Times said is regarded as a significant musical contribution to the civil rights movement.

Lincoln and Roach married in 1962 and divorced in 1970. Lincoln kept a low profile in Los Angeles following the divorce but got back to performing after moving to New York in the 1980s, issuing nine albums including "The World Is Falling Down" and "Abbey Sings Abbey."

She is survived by David Wooldridge, another brother, Kenneth Wooldridge, and a sister, Juanita Baker.