topic 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲 in Community Chat

😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Mz iMac — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 16:56:31 GMT

Diahann Carroll, Oscar-nominated, pioneering actress, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Diahann Carroll, the Oscar-nominated actress and singer who won critical acclaim as the first black woman to star in a non-servant role in a TV series as "Julia," has died. She was 84.

Carroll's daughter, Susan Kay, told The Associated Press her mother died Friday in Los Angeles of cancer.

During her long career, Carroll earned a Tony Award for the musical "No Strings" and an Academy Award nomination for "Claudine."

But she was perhaps best known for her pioneering work on "Julia." Carroll played Julia Baker, a nurse whose husband had been killed in Vietnam, in the groundbreaking situation comedy that aired from 1968 to 1971.

Although she was not the first black woman to star in her own TV show (Ethel Waters played a maid in the 1950s series "Beulah"), she was the first to star as someone other than a servant.

NBC executives were wary about putting "Julia" on the network during the racial unrest of the 1960s, but it was an immediate hit.

It had its critics, though, including some who said Carroll's character, who is the mother of a young son, was not a realistic portrayal of a black American woman in the 1960s.

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

Not 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 the 1959 Richard Rodgers musical "No Strings." Critic Walter Kerr described her as "a girl with a sweet smile, brilliant dark eyes and a profile regal enough 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 faded star Norma Desmond, the role played by Gloria Swanson in the 1950 film.)

"I like to think that I opened doors for other women, although that wasn't my original intention," she said in 2002.

Her film career was sporadic. 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 enough for the Gershwin opera. Her other films included "Goodbye Again," ''Hurry Sundown," ''Paris Blues," and "The Split."

The 1974 film "Claudine" provided her most memorable role. She played a hard-bitten single mother of six who finds romance in Harlem with a garbage man played by James Earl Jones.

In the 1980s, she appeared in the long-running prime-time soap opera "Dynasty" for three years. More recently, she had a number of guest shots and small roles in TV series, including playing the mother of Isaiah Washington's character, Dr. Preston Burke, on "Grey's Anatomy."

She also returned to her roots in nightclubs. In 2006, she made her first club appearance in New York in four decades, singing at Feinstein's at the Regency. Reviewing a return engagement in 2007, a New York Times critic wrote that she sang "Both Sides Now" with "the reflective tone of a woman who has survived many severe storms and remembers every lightning flash and thunderclap."

Carol Diann Johnson was born in New York City and attended the High School for the Performing Arts. Her father was a subway conductor and her mother a homemaker.

She began her career as a model, but a prize from "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" TV show led to nightclub engagements.

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 engaged to Frost, but the engagement was canceled.

An early marriage 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 marriage was in 1987, to singer Vic Damone, and the two appeared together in nightclubs. But they 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 the day that mastectomies, chemotherapy and radiation are considered barbaric," Carroll told a gathering in 2000.

___

copy/paste link--->news.yahoo.com/diahann-carroll-oscar-nominated-pioneering-161036057.html

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

MoonieBaby — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:02:32 GMT

LOVED her as Julia....

For me watching her show as a child I somehow knew she was a tremendous role model - empathetic, capable and graceful.

Though I was a tike, I remember feeling she was really strong, a strong female in an important role.

Loved her on that show. RIP gorgeous soul.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

sunshine45 — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:02:46 GMT

so sad.......

i had the chance to meet her last year, get a picture with her, and speak with her for a few minutes.

she was a beauty and very sweet.

may she rest in peace.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Witchy Woman — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:07:11 GMT

Talented, smart, beautiful.

Did not know she had been married to Vic Damone.

Such a lovely, graceful soul!

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

lovesrecess — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:08:00 GMT

I always thought she was lovely and a talented actress. RIP

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Oznell — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:08:05 GMT

I'm so sorry to hear this, @Mz iMac. Such a versatile performer, tops at everything she attempted, and with a regal, elegant quality that endured. I didn't know she had a romance with Sidney Poitier-- wow, talk about a power couple, however long it lasted! I remember when she and Vic Damone were together, how charming and light-hearted a coupling that seemed. They were dynamite performing.

She was magnificent and did it all.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

golding76 — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:13:26 GMT

I am very sorry to learn of the passing of Diahann Carroll.

She was certainly the perfect avatar for a new age we hoped to realize in American life. So lovely, charming, talented and graceful. An enormous responsibility rested on her very capable shoulders One poster already noted that Ms. Carroll was an early inspiration for her.

May she rest in perfect peace.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Spurt — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:42:07 GMT

She was a very talented performer....

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

SeaMaiden — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:43:01 GMT

cancer..... How sad... Here she was at age 79. Beautiful lady!

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

SandySparkles — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:43:38 GMT

The world lost a treasure but heaven gained an angel. She was the epitome of grace and dignity for all women, particularly women of color. As a child, I would watch her and admire how pretty she was. You just did not see many women of color that looked like, or spoke as eloquently as she did on television. I feel honored to have had her as a role model.

~~~All we need is LOVE💖

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

corita — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:58:42 GMT

I remember watching her show when she played a nurse. Always enjoyed her acting! Thoughts of peace and prayer for her family...

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

CANDLEQUEEN — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 18:03:13 GMT

A beautiful, talented lady....R.I.P.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Bird mama — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 19:52:00 GMT

I'm saddened to read this news. Rest in Peace Ms. Carroll and thank you for the wonderful characters that you brought to life.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Shelbelle — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 19:32:26 GMT

Remember when she entered the cast of Dynasty in 1984 as the half sister to Blake Carrington, Dominique Devereaux, so beautiful and glamorous.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Mz iMac — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 19:32:46 GMT

@Oznell"I didn't know she had a romance with Sidney Poitier-- wow, talk about a power couple, however long it lasted! "

It was an affair that lasted for a decade. Sidney was married.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Oznell — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 19:49:41 GMT

Ah, that's interesting, @Mz iMac. Also didn't know about Duke Ellington. That's quite an eclectic span, from Duke Ellington to David Frost! I'm vaguely remembering that she had a daughter, she was very close to, who I think was quite a beauty as well..

She was just so glamorous. True to her fashion model origins, she wore clothes so well-- always looked fantastic. Then she could trump people's expectations by turning in a gritty performance in the earthy "Claudine", ditching the glitz for harsh reality...

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

Nancy Drew — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:01:36 GMT

I thought she was great in Julia and Dynasty. RIP

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

lynnie61 — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 22:20:02 GMT

RIP I do remember the show Julia but was quite young. I loved that she was a nurse. Did not realize she was on Dynasty. Thanks for sharing mz iMac.

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

GAQShopr53 — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 23:46:59 GMT

Shared on another post that this was sad news...I first saw Diahann in "Carmen Jones" and thought she was one of the most beautiful women I had seen. She was very talented and I also loved her role in Dynasty. She will be missed!!!

Re: 😲 Diahann Carroll R.I.P. 😲

sunshine45 — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 14:17:43 GMT

if you get the ASPIRE channel, they are showing episodes of JULIA this morning.

you can watch it regularly on ASPIRE during the week beginning at 8am.