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Josephine Baker
Dancer, singer and French Resistance agent
She left America's colour line for the Paris stage — then risked both for the Resistance.
The rise
Born Freda Josephine McDonald on 3 June 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, she fled poverty and racism for Paris at nineteen. Her Danse Sauvage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1925 made her the highest-paid entertainer in Europe.