'Can't Get Any Better Than That'

They are accomplished individuals in their own right. But it is almost impossible to think of one without the other - Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are ground breaking actors, writers, producers, and activists. At this year's Kennedy Center awards, the husband and wife duo was honored together.

It started in Harlem in the early 1940s. Davis was a playwright, who took to the stage to hone his craft; Dee was an up-and-coming light in the African American theater.

But it was in 1946, in the Broadway production of "Jeb" that their fates collided.

"I was the lead," Davis tells The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "The young lady who was opposite me unfortunately couldn't get the southern accent quite right. Well, to our great surprise, the understudy turned out to be a young lady, Ruby Dee, who knew all the lines, all the moves, and was exquisitely professional."

What was her first impression of Ossie Davis? "A country bumpkin," Dee says, laughing. "He was tall and skinny and his clothes didn't fit. His sleeves landed in the middle of his arms and his pants didn't fit him."

It was the beginning of a union that would change the face of American stage and screen.

At the Kennedy Center Honors, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs said about the couple, "Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have given great gifts. Not just to audiences, but the generation of African American writers, performers and directors who have traveled the road they have made."

Among the first African American actors to break out of stereotypically "Negro" roles, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee never separated their art from their activism.

Davis says, "We knew that every time we got a job and every time we were on stage, America was looking to make judgments about all black folks on the basis of how you looked, how you sounded, how you carried yourself. So, any role that you had was a role that was involved in the struggle for black identification. You couldn't escape it."

They accepted that responsibility with pride: from the roles that they chose, such as "A Raisin In The Sun, to the speeches they made. Together, they helped organize and played very active roles in the famous March on Washington in August, 1963. Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X both in real life, and again in the Spike Lee's film, "Malcom X."

Davis points out, "I can't see how I could fulfill myself as an actor or a writer without being fully committed to living a full life as a citizen in this particular country."

And because of that dedication, they set the stage for a new generation of black actors.

Even though the two of them have received many awards over the years, being honored at the Kennedy Center is particularly special for the couple

Dee says, "It makes me feel something marvelous about the country, no matter what grievances we may have. This is a country that respects its rebels, too."

Ossie Davis says, "It means to do whatever we wanted, whatever the risk. And here, at the end of it all, you know, Kennedy Center says whatever you did, in our opinion, was well done. Oh, you can't get any better than that."

For exclusive video of the couple,