Diahann Carroll

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diahann Carroll (born Carol Diahann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer and model. She rose to stardom in performances in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including Carmen Jones in 1954 and Porgy and Bess in 1959. In 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for best actress, a first for a black woman, for her role in the Broadway musical No Strings.

Her 1968 debut in Julia, the first series on American television to star a black woman in a nonstereotypical role, was a milestone both in her career and the medium. In the 1980s she played the role of an interracial diva in the primetime soap opera Dynasty.

Carroll was 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 nomination for Best Actress for the 1974 film Claudine. She was also a breast cancer survivor and activist.

Known For

Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Motown 40: The Music is Forever
Motown 40: The Music is Forever
The Split
The Split
Paris Blues
Paris Blues
The Five Heartbeats
The Five Heartbeats
Eve's Bayou
Eve's Bayou
The Front
The Front
At Risk
At Risk
The Beatles Forever
The Beatles Forever

Filmography

2021 How It Feels to Be Free
as Self (archival footage)
2016 The Masked Saint
as Ms. Edna
2015 Light Girls
as Self
2014 And the Oscar Goes To...
as Self (archive footage)
2013 Peeples
as Nana Peeples
2013 Martin Luther King and the March on Washington
as Self
2012 Sing Your Song
as Self
2010 The Front
as Nana
2010 At Risk
as Nana
2009 White Collar
as June
2009 Diary of a Single Mom
as Therapist
2007 Back to You
as Sandra Jenkins
2005 Grey's Anatomy
as Jane Burke
2004 TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
as (archive footage)
2003 Whoopi
as Viveca Rae
2002 Half & Half
as Grandma Ruth Thorne
2002 NBC 75th Anniversary Special
as Self
2002 The Court
as
2001 The Legend of Tarzan
as Queen La (voice)
2000 Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story
as Maria Cole