Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:43, 16 November 2020

Diahann Carroll
Carroll in 1976
Born	Carol Diahann Johnson (1935-07-17)July 17, 1935 Bronx, New York, U.S.
Died	October 4, 2019(2019-10-04) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Music & Art High School
Alma mater	New York University
Occupations	Actress singer fashion model activist
Years active	1950–2015
Spouses	Monte Kay ​ ​(m. 1956; div. 1963)​ Fred Glusman ​ ​(m. 1973; div. 1973)​ Robert DeLeon ​ ​(m. 1975; died 1977)​ Vic Damone ​ ​(m. 1987; div. 1996)​
Partner(s)	Sidney Poitier (1959–1968) David Frost (1970–1973)
Children	1
Awards	Tony Award and Golden Globe Award

Diahann Carroll (/daɪˈæn/; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature Black casts, including Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959). In 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a first for an African American woman, for her role in the Broadway musical No Strings. In 1974 she starred in Claudine alongside James Earl Jones for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her title role in Julia, for which she received the 1968 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress In a Television Series, was the first series on American television to star a Black woman in a non-stereotypical role, was a milestone both in her career and the medium. In the 1980s, she played the role of Dominique Deveraux, a mixed-race diva, in the prime time soap opera Dynasty. Carroll was the recipient of numerous stage and screen nominations and awards, including her Tony Award in 1962, Golden Globe Award in 1968 and five Emmy Award nominations. She died on October 4, 2019 after a battle with breast cancer.

Early years

Carol Diahann Johnson was born in the Bronx, New York City, on July 17, 1935, to John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel (Faulk), a nurse. While Carroll was still an infant, the family moved to Harlem, where she grew up. She attended Music and Art High School, and was a classmate of Billy Dee Williams. In many interviews about her childhood, Carroll recalls her parents' support, and their enrolling her in dance, singing, and modeling classes. By the time Carroll was 15, she was modeling for Ebony. "She also began entering television contests, including Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, under the name Diahann Carroll." After graduating from high school, she attended New York University, where she majored in sociology, "but she left before graduating to pursue a show-business career, promising her family that if the career did not materialize after two years, she would return to college."

Career

Carroll's big break came at age 18, when she appeared as a contestant on the DuMont Television Network program, Chance of a Lifetime, hosted by Dennis James. On the show, which aired January 8, 1954, she took the $1,000 top prize for a rendition of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein song, "Why Was I Born?" She went on to win the following four weeks. Engagements at Manhattan's Café Society and Latin Quarter nightclubs soon followed.

Carroll's film debut was a supporting role in Carmen Jones (1954), as a friend to the sultry lead character played by Dorothy Dandridge. That same year, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway musical, House of Flowers. A few years later, she played Clara in the film version of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1959), but her character's singing parts were dubbed by opera singer Loulie Jean Norman. The following year, Carroll made a guest appearance in the series Peter Gunn, in the episode "Sing a Song of Murder" (1960). In the next two years, she starred with Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward in the film Paris Blues (1961) and won the 1962 Tony Award for best actress (the first time for a Black woman) for portraying Barbara Woodruff in the Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers musical No Strings. Twelve years later, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role alongside James Earl Jones in the film Claudine (1974), which part had been written specifically for actress Diana Sands (who had made guest appearances on Julia as Carroll's cousin Sara), but shortly before filming was to begin, Sands learned she was terminally ill with cancer. Sands attempted to carry on with the role, but as filming began, she became too ill to continue and recommended her friend Carroll take over the role. Sands died in September 1973, before the film's release in April 1974.

Carroll is known for her titular role in the television series Julia (1968), which made her the first African-American actress to star in her own television series who did not play a domestic worker. That role won her the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress In A Television Series" for its year, and a nomination for an Emmy Award in 1969. Some of Carroll's earlier work also included appearances on shows hosted by Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar, and Ed Sullivan, and on The Hollywood Palace variety show. In 1984, Carroll joined the nighttime soap opera Dynasty as the mixed-race jet set diva Dominique Deveraux, Blake Carrington's half-sister. Her high-profile role on Dynasty also reunited her with her schoolmate Billy Dee Williams, who briefly played her onscreen husband Brady Lloyd. Carroll remained on the show until 1987, simultaneously making several appearances on its short-lived spin-off, The Colbys. She received her third Emmy nomination in 1989 for the recurring role of Marion Gilbert in A Different World.

Carroll portrayed Eleanor Potter, the doting, concerned, and protective wife of Jimmy Potter (portrayed by Chuck Patterson), in The Five Heartbeats (1991), a musical drama film also featuring actor and musician Robert Townsend, and Michael Wright. In a 1995 reunion with Billy Dee Williams in Lonesome Dove: The Series, she played Mrs. Greyson, the wife of Williams' character. In 1996, Carroll starred as the self-loving and deluded silent movie star Norma Desmond in the Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of the film Sunset Boulevard. In 2001, Carroll made her animation début in The Legend of Tarzan, in which she voiced Queen La, ruler of the ancient city of Opar.

In 2006, Carroll appeared in the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke. From December 2008, she appeared in USA Network's series White Collar as June, the savvy widow who rents out her guest room to Neal Caffrey. In 2010, Carroll was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docudrama titled 1 a Minute, and she appeared as Nana in two Lifetime movie adaptations of Patricia Cornwell novels: At Risk and The Front.

In 2013, Carroll was present on stage for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, to briefly speak about being the first African-American nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She was quoted as saying about Kerry Washington, nominated for Scandal, "she better get this award."

Personal life

Carroll was married four times. Her father boycotted the ceremony for her first wedding, in 1956, to record producer Monte Kay, which was presided over by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The marriage ended in 1962. Carroll gave birth to her daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford (born September 9, 1960), who became a journalist and screenwriter.

In 1959, Carroll began a nine-year affair with the married actor Sidney Poitier. In her autobiography, Carroll said Poitier persuaded her to divorce her husband and said he would leave his wife to be with her. While she proceeded with her divorce, Poitier did not keep his part of the bargain. Eventually he divorced his wife. According to Poitier, their relationship ended because he wanted to live with Carroll for six months without her daughter present so he would not be "jumping from one marriage straight into another." She refused.

Carroll dated and was engaged to British television host and producer David Frost from 1970 until 1973. In 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman. After four months of marriage Glusman filed for divorce in June 1973. Carroll filed a response, but did not contest the divorce, which was finalized two months later. Glusman was reportedly physically abusive.

On May 25, 1975, Carroll then age 39, married Robert DeLeon, the 24-year old managing editor of Jet magazine. They met when DeLeon assigned himself to a cover story on Carroll about her 1975 Oscar nomination for Claudine. DeLeon had a child from a previous marriage. Carroll moved to Chicago where Jet was headquartered, but DeLeon soon quit his job so the couple relocated to Oakland. Carroll was widowed two years later when DeLeon was killed in a car crash. Carroll's fourth marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996.

Charitable work

Carroll was a founding member of the Celebrity Action Council, a volunteer group of celebrity women who served the women's outreach of the Los Angeles Mission, working with women in rehabilitation from problems with alcohol, drugs, or prostitution. She helped to form the group along with other female television personalities including Mary Frann, Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Joan Van Ark.

Illness, death, and memorial

Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She said the diagnosis "stunned" her, because there was no family history of breast cancer, and she had always led a healthy lifestyle. She underwent nine weeks of radiation therapy and had been clear for years after the diagnosis. She frequently spoke of the need for early detection and prevention of the disease. She died on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, aged 84.

Carroll was saluted in a star studded memorial on November 24, 2019 at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York City where she was lauded for her trailblazing work in entertainment. Among those paying tribute were Laurence Fishburne, Phylicia Rashad, Vanessa Williams, Lynn Whitfield, Judith Jamison, Valerie Simpson, Lenny Kravitz, Angela Bassett, Cicely Tyson and Jasmine Guy.

Work

Film

Television

Theater

Discography

• Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen Songs (1957)
• Best Beat Forward (1958)
• The Persian Room Presents Diahann Carroll (1959)
• Porgy and Bess (1959) (with the André Previn Trio)
• The Magic of Diahann Carroll (with the André Previn Trio) (1960)
• Fun Life (1961)
• Modern Jazz Quartet — The Comedy (1962)
• Showstopper! (1962)
• The Fabulous Diahann Carroll (1962)
• You're Adorable: Love Songs for Children (1967)
• Nobody Sees Me Cry (1967)
• Diahann Carroll (1974)
• A Tribute to Ethel Waters (1978)
• The Time of My Life (1997)

Awards and nominations

• 2011: Inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame
• 1992: Women in Film Crystal Award.
• 1998: Women in Film Lucy Award
• 2000: NAACP Image Award — Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
• 2005: NAACP Image Award — Soul Food

References

1. ^ Li, David K (October 4, 2019). "Diahann Carroll, groundbreaking 'Julia' actress, dead at 84". Today. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
2. "Pioneering Actress Diahann Carroll Dead At 84". NBC Palm Springs. October 4, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
3. ^ McPhee, Ryan (October 4, 2019). "Tony Award Winner and Oscar Nominee Diahann Carroll Dies at 84". Playbill. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
4. "Diahann Carroll Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved August 30, 2008.
5. ^ Fox, Margalit (October 4, 2019). "Diahann Carroll, Actress Who Broke Barriers With 'Julia,' Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
6. ^ Bogle, Donald (2015). Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9781466894457. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
7. ^ McCann, Bob (2009). Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. McFarland. pp. 71–73. ISBN 9780786458042. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
8. ^ Moody, Nekesa Mumbi (October 4, 2019). "Diahann Carroll, Oscar-nominated, pioneering actress, dies". ABC News10. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
9. "N.Y. singer Diahann Carroll finds Cinderella-like fame". Jet. 5 (23): 60–61. April 15, 1954. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
10. ^ "Diahann Carroll". Golden Globe Awards. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
11. ^ Morgan, Glenisha (October 4, 2019). "Groundbreaking Actress Diahann Carroll Dies At 84". K104.7. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
12. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 625. ISBN 9781538103746. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
13. Mayer, Geoff (2017). Encyclopedia of American Film Serials. McFarland. p. 37. ISBN 9780786477623. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
14. Mitovich, Matt (December 2, 2008). "Diahann Carroll Collars Role on USA Pilot". TV Guide. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
15. "Survivor celebs to join breast cancer film premiere". Sify News. IANS. September 1, 2010. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
16. Gray, Ellen (September 23, 2013). "A Little Off-Script". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 31. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
17. Diliberto, Gioia (December 2, 1985). "Now That Diahann Carroll's Come into His Life, Things Are Looking Up for Crooner Vic Damone". People.
18. "Diahann Carroll, TV Trailblazer and Oscar Nominee, Dies at 84". People. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
19. ^ Griffiths, John (December 21, 2017). "Diahann Carroll: Hall of Fame Tribute". Television Academy EMMYS. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
20. Carroll, Diahann (2008). The Legs Are The Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way. Amistad. ISBN 9780060763268.
21. Armstrong, Lois (August 4, 1980). "Guess Who's Coming to Terms at Last with His Kids, Racial Politics and Life? Sidney Poitier". People.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
22. "It's Over! Diahann Carroll is Divorced". Jet: 54. August 9, 1973.
23. Iley, Chrissy (November 5, 2008). "'I'm ambitious, dedicated and vain'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
24. ^ Armstrong, Lois (August 23, 1976). "De-Frosted Diahann Carroll Finds 'Comfort' with an Ex-Editor 15 Years Her Junior". People.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
25. Sanders, Charles L. (November 1979). "Diahann Carroll: How the death of her youthful changed her life". Ebony: 164–170.
26. Feuer, Alan; Rashbaum, William K. (March 12, 2005). "Blood Ties: 2 Officers' Long Path to Mob Murder Indictments". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
27. Rourke, Elizabeth (2006). "Diahann Carroll: Biography". Contemporary Black Biography. The Gale Group, Inc. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
28. "Diahann Carroll: Biography, Photos, Movies, TV, Credits". Hollywood.com. 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
29. Carter, Bill (September 25, 1998). "Mary Frann, 55, Bemused Wife on 'Newhart'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
30. ^ Jackson, Dory (October 4, 2019). "(RIP) Diahann Carroll Dead: Trailblazing Actress From 'Dynasty' and 'Julia' Dies at 84 After Cancer Battle". US Magazine.
31. "Actress and breast cancer survivor Diahann Carroll to address Baylor luncheon". Dallas News. October 26, 2011. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
32. "Diahann Carroll's Legacy Remembered In New York Memorial". Blackamericaweb.com. November 25, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
33. "Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett Pay Tribute to Diahann Carroll at Memorial Service". The Hollywood Reporter. November 24, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
34. Kim, L. S. (2014). "Raced Audiences and the Logic of Representation". In Alvarado, Manuel; Buonanno, Milly; Gray, Herman; Miller, Toby (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies. SAGE. ISBN 9781473911086. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
35. Jackson, Sandra (1992). "Video Review: Color Adjustment". Visual Sociology. 7 (1): 89. doi:10.1080/14725869208583697.
36. Hamlet, Janice D. (2019). Tyler Perry: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496824608. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
37. Gay, Roxanne (2014). Bad Feminist. Hachette UK. ISBN 9781472119742. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
38. ^ Inman, David M. (2014). Television Variety Shows: Histories and Episode Guides to 57 Programs. McFarland. ISBN 9781476608778. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
39. What's My Line? (May 26, 2014). "What's My Line? – Sir Edmund Hillary; Diahann Carroll; Merv Griffin [panel] (May 20, 1962)" – via YouTube.
40. "The Dick Cavett Show". TV Guide. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
41. "Movies tagged with: Diahann Carroll". The Dick Cavett Show. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
42. Littleton, Cynthia (January 18, 2016). "'The Dick Cavett Show' Returns on CBS' Decades Digital Channel". Variety. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
43. "New Bill Cosby Show, The". Golden Globe Awards. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
44. "Tuesday's Highlights: Best Bets". Democrat and Chronicle TV Week. Rochester, New York. July 16, 2000. p. 15. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
45. Jackson, Constance Lillie (2008). Over the River--: Life of Lydia Maria Child, Abolitionist for Freedom, 1802-1880 : a Companion Book to the Epic Documentary of the Same Name. Permanent Productions. p. viii. ISBN 9780981820408. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
46. ^ Evans, Greg (October 4, 2019). "Diahann Carroll Dies: Groundbreaking Star Of TV's 'Julia' & Tony Winner Was 84". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
47. Francis, Betty (May 16, 2010). "One Night of Diahann". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, California. p. B6. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
48. ^ Kepler, Adam W. (February 9, 2014). "'A Raisin in the Sun' Loses Diahann Carroll". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
49. Pao, Angela C (2010). No Safe Spaces: Re-casting Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in American Theater. University of Michigan Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780472051212. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
50. "Uggams Replaces Carroll in On Golden Pond". Broadway. September 22, 2004. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
51. Rooney, David (April 7, 2005). "On Golden Pond". Variety. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
52. ^ Rayno, Don (2012). Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930-1967. Scarecrow Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780810883222. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
53. Cochran, Polly (July 7, 1957). "Winding Gives Trombone Lesson". The Indianapolis Star. Indianapolis, Indiana. pp. 12–6. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
54. Trulock, Harold (June 27, 1957). "Gershwin and Sarah Are Winning Team". The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis, Indiana. p. 41. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
55. Sheridan, Phil (April 29, 1958). "Girl Album Choice". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 21. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
56. Leonard, Lloyd (February 19, 1960). "Record Roundup". Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada. p. 4. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
57. Sheridan, Phil (March 18, 1959). "Record Review". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 21. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
58. Downbeat (December 29, 1963). "What's New On Record". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. p. 50. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
59. Arganbright, Frank (May 5, 1962). "Listening On Records". Journal and Courier. Lafayette, Indiana. p. 10. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
60. Gray, Letitia (August 6, 1962). "New Releases Show Two Fine Sides of Andre Previn". The Tampa Times. Tampa, Florida. p. 27. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
61. "Album Reviews". Billboard: 52. October 16, 1965. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
62. "Diahann Caroll Waxes Album, 'Nobody Sees Me Cry'". Jet. XXXI (22): 55. March 9, 1967. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
63. Coffin, Howard A. "Diahann Carroll Shed Glamor for 'Claudine'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. M1. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
64. ^ Grossberg, Josh (September 23, 2013). "Diahann Carroll & Kerry Washington – Why It's a Big Deal". E News.
65. ^ "Past Recipients". Women In Film. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
66. ^ "NAACP Mourns Passing of Trailblazer Diahann Carroll". NAACP. October 4, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.

Further reading

• Carroll, Diahann (2009). The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, Mothering, and Other Things I Learned Along the Way. New York: HarperPaperbacks. ISBN 9780060763275.
• Carroll, Diahann, with Ross Firestone (1987). Diahann: An Autobiography (1st Ivy Books ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0804101310.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Plowden, Martha Ward (2002). Famous Firsts of Black Women. Illustrated by Ronald Jones (2nd ed.). Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co. ISBN 9781565541979.

External links

• "Diahann Carroll". discogs.
• Diahann Carroll at the Internet Broadway Database
• Diahann Carroll at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Diahann Carroll at IMDb
• Diahann Carroll at Find a Grave
• Diahann Carroll. Makers: Women Who Make America. Biographical video.
• Diahann Carroll at the TCM Movie Database
• Diahann Carroll at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• "Diahann Carroll". The HistoryMakers. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014.
• "Diahann Carroll". The National Visionary Leadership Project. Diahann Carroll's oral history video excerpts.

• 1935 births
• 2019 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from New York City
• African-American actresses
• African-American female singers
• American film actresses
• American musical theatre actresses
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• Baptists from New York (state)
• Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
• Breast cancer survivors
• Deaths from cancer in California
• New York University alumni
• People from Harlem
• RCA Victor artists
• The High School of Music & Art alumni
• Tony Award winners
• Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx)