Diahann Carroll (/daɪˈæn/dy-AN; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. Carroll was the recipient of numerous nominations and awards for her stage and screen performances, including a Tony Award in 1962, Golden Globe Award in 1968, and five Emmy Award nominations.
Carol Diann Johnson was born in the Bronx, New York City, on July 17, 1935,[2] to John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel (Faulk),[3] a nurse.[4][5]: 152 While Carroll was still an infant, the family moved to Harlem, where she grew up except for a brief period in which her parents had left her with an aunt in North Carolina.[6][5]: 152 [7] She attended Music and Art High School,[8][2][6] 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.[4][8] "She also began entering television contests, including Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, under the name Diahann Carroll."[4][2][5]: 152 After graduating from high school, she attended New York University,[2] where she majored in sociology,[5]: 152 "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."[4]
Carroll is known for her titular role in the television series Julia (1968–71),[4][2][5]: 141–151 which made her the first African-American actress in a television series starring role that was not of a domestic worker.[1][8] That role won her the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star – Female for its first year,[2][10] and a nomination for an Primetime Emmy Award in 1969.[2] 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 at the end of its fourth season as the mixed-race jet set diva Dominique Deveraux,[4]Blake Carrington's half-sister.[8] 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 and made several appearances on its short-lived spin-off, The Colbys until she departed at the end of the seventh season in 1987. In 1989, she began the recurring role of Marion Gilbert, Whitley Gilbert's mother, in A Different World, for which she received her third Emmy nomination that same year.[8]
In 1991, Carroll portrayed Eleanor Potter, the doting, concerned, and protective wife of Jimmy Potter (portrayed by Chuck Patterson), in the musical drama film The Five Heartbeats (1991),[2] also featuring actor and musician Robert Townsend and Michael Wright. She reunited with Billy Dee Williams again in 1995, portraying his character's wife Mrs. Greyson in Lonesome Dove: The Series. The following year, Carroll starred as the self-loving,egotistical,corrupt,manipulative and deceptive 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 debut in The Legend of Tarzan,[11] in which she voiced Queen La,[12] ruler of the ancient city of Opar.[13]
In 2006, Carroll appeared in several episodes of the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke. From 2008 to 2014, she appeared on USA Network's series White Collar in the recurring role of June, the savvy widow who rents out her guest room to Neal Caffrey.[14] In 2010, Carroll was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docudrama titled 1 a Minute, and appeared as Nana in two Lifetime movie adaptations of Patricia Cornwell novels: At Risk and The Front.[15]
In 2013, Carroll was present on stage at 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."[16]
Personal life
Carroll was married four times. Her father boycotted the ceremony for her first wedding [citation needed] in 1956, to record producer Monte Kay,[4][8] which was presided over by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The marriage ended in 1962.[17] Carroll gave birth to her daughter, Suzanne Kay (born September 9, 1960), who became a journalist and screenwriter.[4][18][19]
In 1959, Carroll began a nine-year affair with the married actor Sidney Poitier.[4][6] 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.[20] 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.[21]
Carroll dated and was engaged to British television host and producer David Frost from 1970 until 1973.[4][6] In February 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman.[4][8] 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.[6][22] Glusman was reportedly physically abusive.[23]
On May 25, 1975, Carroll, then aged 39, married Robert DeLeon (1950–1977),[24] the 24-year-old managing editor of Jet magazine in New York City.[4][8] They met when DeLeon assigned himself to a cover story on Carroll about her 1975 Oscar nomination for Claudine.[25] DeLeon had a daughter, Monica, from a previous marriage.[24] Carroll moved to Chicago where Jet was headquartered, but DeLeon soon quit his job so the couple relocated to Oakland.[25] Carroll was widowed when DeLeon was killed in a car crash in Beverly Hills on March 31, 1977.[6][26][24][27] Carroll's fourth and final marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987.[4][8] The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996.[6][28][29]
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.[30]
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.[8][31] She died from cancer at her home in West Hollywood, California, on October 4, 2019, at the age of 84.[8][4] Carroll also suffered from dementia at the time of her death, though actor Marc Copage, who played her character's son on Julia, said that she did not appear to show serious signs of cognitive decline as of late 2017.[32][33]
^Cochran, Polly (July 7, 1957). "Winding Gives Trombone Lesson". The Indianapolis Star. Indianapolis, Indiana. pp. 12–6. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Trulock, Harold (June 27, 1957). "Gershwin and Sarah Are Winning Team". The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis, Indiana. p. 41. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Sheridan, Phil (April 29, 1958). "Girl Album Choice". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 21. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Leonard, Lloyd (February 19, 1960). "Record Roundup". Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada. p. 4. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Sheridan, Phil (March 18, 1959). "Record Review". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 21. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Downbeat (December 29, 1963). "What's New On Record". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. p. 50. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
^Arganbright, Frank (May 5, 1962). "Listening On Records". Journal and Courier. Lafayette, Indiana. p. 10. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
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. ISBN9780060763275.