An elegant trailblazer, Diahann Carroll, has passed away at the age of 84. The Hollywood Reporter was told by her daughter, Suzanne Kay, that Carroll died following a long battle with cancer at her home in Los Angeles.
Today’s TV audiences think nothing of an African American woman in a leading role of major network TV show. Before there was Viola Davis and Kerry Washington, there was Ms. Carroll.
Her original introduction to American audiences was in mileston major movies featuring African American casts. While there were smaller films for nearly 50 years before featuring Black casts, movies like Carmen Jones in 1954 and Porgy and Bess in 1959 with their level of financing, elegance and production value was at a new level. Carroll showcased the beauty and intelligence of African American women, at a time when too often they were only portrayed as maids.
She also conquered the Broadway stage with her performance in in the Broadway musical No Strings which led to the first African American woman winning a Tony Award for best actress in 1962.
Then Carroll went on to wow audienes in 1968 in the landmark show Julia, on NBC. It was the first series on American television to feature an African American woman in a professional role where she played a nurse. In the 1980s she played the role of a mixed-race diva in the primetime soap opera Dynasty.
Carroll is the recipient of numerous stage and screen nominations and awards, including the Golden Globe Award for “Best Actress In A Television Series” in 1968. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the 1974 film Claudine.
Her last TV role was on the USA Network show, White Collar where she made 25 appearances over the show’s five-year run.
Born in New York City, Carroll was last seen on film in 2016 in the film The Masked Saint.
