Diahann Carroll, Oscar-nominated actor and singer, dies at 84

Diahann Carroll, Oscar-minated actress, and singer who won critical acclaim as first black woman to star in a n-servant role in a TV series as “Julia,” has died. She was 84. Carroll’s daughter, Susan Kay, told Associated Press her mor died Friday in Los Angeles of cancer. During her long career, Carroll earned a Tony Award for musical “ Strings” and an Acemy Award mination for best actress for “Claudine.” But she was perhaps best kwn for her pioneering work on “Julia.” Carroll played Julia Baker, a nurse whose husband h been killed in Vietnam, in groundbreaking situation comedy that aired from 1968 to 1971.

“Diahann Carroll walked this earth for 84 years and broke ground with every footstep. An icon. One of all-time greats,” director Ava DuVernay wrote on Twitter. “She blazed trails through dense forests and elegantly left diamonds along path for rest of us to follow. Extraordinary life. Thank you, Ms. Carroll.”

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Carroll was first black to star as someone or than a servant

Although she was t first black woman to star in her own TV show (El Waters played a maid in 1950s series “Beulah”), she was first to star as someone or than a servant. NBC executives were wary about putting “Julia” on network during racial unrest of 1960s, but it was an immediate hit. It h its critics, though, including some who said Carroll’s character, who is mor of a young son, was t a realistic portrayal of a black American woman in 1960s.

“y said it was a fantasy,” Carroll recalled in 1998. “All of this was untrue. Much about character of Julia I took from my own life, my family.”

t shy when it came to confronting racial barriers, Carroll won her Tony portraying a high-fashion American model in Paris who has a love affair with a white American author in 1959 Richard Rodgers musical “ Strings.” Critic Walter Kerr described her as “a girl with a sweet smile, brilliant dark eyes and a profile regal eugh to belong on a coin.” She appeared often in plays previously considered exclusive territory for white actresses: “Same Time, Next Year,” ″Agnes of God” and “Sunset Boulevard” (as fed star rma Desmond, role played by Gloria Swanson in 1950 film.)

“I like to think that I opened doors for or women, although that wasn’t my original intention,” she said in 2002.

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Carroll's splendid career

Her film career was sporic. She began with a secondary role in “Carmen Jones” in 1954 and five years later appeared in “Porgy and Bess,” although her singing voice was dubbed because it wasn’t considered strong eugh for Gershwin opera. Her or films included “Goodbye Again,” ″Hurry Sundown,” ″Paris Blues,” and “ Split.” 1974 film “Claudine” provided her most memorable role. She played a hard-bitten single mor of six who finds romance in Harlem with a garb man played by James Earl Jones. Carroll says she got role after intended le actress, Diana Sands, became sick and insisted her friend take role (Sands died in 1973). But Carroll said those behind movies did t see her in role because of her work in Julia and me her audition without makeup.

“Give me a chance. Just give me opportunity to show you that I understand,” she recalled telling m in an interview with National Visionary Leership Project. “I’m an actress, singer, from New York City, from streets of New York, and I pride myself on my work ... I would like to be given opportunity to stretch my wings.” She would end up being minated for her Oscar, and she recalled filming a magical experience. “I h such a good time, I almost told m you don’t need to pay me,” she ded.

In 1980s, she joined in long-running prime-time soap opera “Dynasty” as Dominique Deveraux, glamorous half-sister of Blake Carrington; her physical battles with Alexis Carrington, played by Joan Collins, were among fan highlights. Ar memorable role was Marion Gilbert, as haughty mor of Whitley Gilbert (played by Jasmine Guy) on TV series “A Different World.” “Diahann Carroll you taught us so much. We are stronger, more beautiful and risk-takers because of you. We will forever sing your praises and speak your name. Love Love Love, Debbie,” wrote actress, dancer and director Debbie Allen, who was a producer on “A Different World.” More recently, she h a number of guest shots and small roles in TV series, including playing mor of Isaiah Washington’s character, Dr. Preston Burke, on “Grey’s Anatomy” and a stretch on TV show “White Collar” as widow June. She also returned to her roots in nightclubs. In 2006, she me her first club appearance in New York in four deces, singing at Feinstein’s at Regency. Reviewing a return engment in 2007, a New York Times critic wrote that she sang “Both Sides w” with “ reflective tone of a woman who has survived many severe storms and remembers every lightning flash and thunderclap.”
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More about Caroll

Carol Diann Johnson was born in New York City and attended High School for Performing Arts. Her far was a subway conductor and her mor a homemaker. She recalls when she was around 3 or 4, her parents took her to an aunt in rth Carolina and left her in care of her aunt, without tice, for a year. She said it took a long time to forgive her parents, though she eventually did, and was re for m in ir later years.

“It happened, it’s over, it’s done. A mature person finds a way to let go of that,” she told OWN’s “Masterclass in an interview a few years ago. “y did a lot of wonderful things. y lived, gave me everything y possibly could, and y passed on.”

She began her career as a model in a segregated industry; she got much of her work due to publications like black magazine Ebony. A prize from “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” TV show led to nightclub engments. In her 1998 memoir “Diahann,” Carroll traced her turbulent romantic life, which included liaisons with Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Poitier, and David Frost. She even became engd to Frost, but engment was cancelled. An early marri to nightclub owner Monte Kay resulted in Carroll’s only child, Suzanne, as well as a divorce. She also divorced her second husband, retail executive Freddie Glusman, later marrying magazine editor Robert DeLeon, who died. Her most celebrated marri was in 1987, to singer Vic Damone, and two appeared toger in nightclubs. But y separated in 1991 and divorced several years later. After she was treated for breast cancer in 1998, she spoke out for more money for research and for free screening for women who couldn’t afford mammograms. “We all look forward to day that mastectomies, chemorapy, and riation are considered barbaric,” Carroll told a garing in 2000. Besides her daughter, she is survived by grandchildren August and Sydney.
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