Diahann Carroll Biography
Summary
"Diahann Carroll" (born July 17, 1935) is an American actress and songstress.
Early years
Carroll was born "Carol Diahann Johnson" in The Bronx, New York, to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk. Her family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City when she was an infant. She attended Music & Art High School, along with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams.
Career
Carroll's first film assignment was a supporting role in "Carmen Jones" in 1954, playing a friend of the sultry Carmen, played by Dorothy Dandridge. She then starred in the Broadway musical "House of Flowers". In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" along with Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Pearl Bailey. All singing voices were dubbed in the film, with the exception of Pearl Bailey, with opera singer Loulie Jean Norman standing in for Carroll. In 1962 she won the Tony Award for best actress (a first for a black woman) for the role of Barbara Woodruff in the Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers musical "No Strings". In 1974 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for "Claudine".
Carroll is best known for her title role in the 1968 television series "Julia", which made her the first African American actress to star in her own television series where she did not play a domestic worker. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1969, and won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress In A Television Series"? in 1968. Her first Emmy nomination had come in 1963 for "Naked City". Some of her other earlier work included appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Judy Garland and Ed Sullivan, and on "The Hollywood Palace" variety show.
In 1984, Carroll joined the nighttime soap opera "Dynasty" as the jetsetter Dominique Deveraux, half-sister of Blake Carrington played by actor John Forsythe. Her high profile role on "Dynasty" also reunited her with actor Billy Dee Williams, who briefly played her onscreen husband Brady Lloyd. Carroll remained on the show until 1987, also making several appearances on its short-lived spin-off "The Colbys" during this time.
She received her third Emmy nomination in 1989 for her recurring role as Marion Gilbert in "A Different World". In 2006, she appeared in the television medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke.
Carroll starred in the Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of the classic film "Sunset Boulevard." She played the crazed silent movie star Norma Desmond, with the role of Joe Gillis played by Rex Smith.
Carroll has been cast in the pilot for USA Networks's series "White Collar".
Carroll will be featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docu-drama titled "1 a Minute" scheduled for release in 2010. The documentary is being made by actress Namrata Singh Gujral and will also feature breast cancer suriviors Olivia Newton-John, Melissa Etheridge, Namrata Singh Gujral, Mumtaz (actress) and Jaclyn Smith as well as William Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin and Priya Dutt.
Personal life
Carroll has had four marriages, the first of which produced a daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford (born 1960), who became a freelance media journalist.
In 1973, Carroll surprised the press by marrying Las Vegas boutique owner Fred Glusman. She and British television host and producer David Frost had been dating at the time, and were actually engaged. Several weeks later, she filed for divorce, charging Glusman with physical abuse. In 1975, she married Robert DeLeon, a managing editor of "Jet" magazine. She was widowed two years later when DeLeon was killed in a car crash. Carroll's fourth and last marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, saw a legal separation in 1991, a reconciliation, and finally divorce in 1996.
Carroll is a breast cancer activist and survivor, who invited a camera crew into her treatment room for a national broadcast special to draw attention to the disease.
She was called 'possibly the most perfect woman' and the 'all-time best-dressed woman' by fashion critic Richard Blackwell.
Work
Television
"The Man in the Moon" (1960)
"The Garry Moore Show" (1960)-Recurring for several weeks
"Naked City" (1962) as Ruby Jay in episode 'A Horse Has a Big Head -- Let Him Worry!'
"The Eleventh Hour" - (1963)as Stella Young in episode 'And God Created Vanity'
"Julia" (1968-1971)
"The Diahann Carroll Special" (1971)
"The Black Journal" (co-host 1974-1975)
"Death Scream" (1975)
"The Diahann Carroll Show" (1976)(summer replacement series)
"The Star Wars Holiday Special" (1978)
"Roots: The Next Generations" (1979)
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1979)
"Sister, Sister" (1982)
"Dynasty" (cast member from 1984-1987)
"From the Dead of Night" (1989)
"A Different World" (1989-1993)
"Murder in Black and White" (1990)
"Sunday in Paris" (1991)
"Lonesome Dove: The Series" (1994-1995)
"A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle" (1994)
"The Sweetest Gift" (1998)
"Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years" (1999)
"Jackie's Back" (1999)
"The Courage to Love" (2000)
"Sally Hemings: An American Scandal" (2000) (miniseries)
"Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story" (2000)
"The Court" (2002)(canceled after 6 episodes)
"Soul Food" (2003-2004)
"Grey's Anatomy" (2006-2007)
Filmography
"Carmen Jones" (1954)
"Porgy and Bess" (1959)
"Goodbye Again" (1961)
"Paris Blues" (1961)
"Hurry Sundown" (1967)
"The Split" (1968)
"Claudine" (1974)
"The Five Heartbeats" (1991)
"Color Adjustment" (1992(documentary)
"Eve's Bayou" (1997)
"Over The River...Life of Lydia Maria Child, Abolitionist for Freedom" (2008) (documentary) (narrator)
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 Andre Previn Trio)
"Diahann Carroll and the Andre Previn Trio" (1960)
"Fun Life" (1961)
"The Fabulous Diahann Carroll" (1963)
"A 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)
Theater
"House of Flowers" (December 30, 1954 - May 21, 1955) (Broadway)
"No Strings" (March 15, 1962 - August 3, 1963) (Broadway)
"Same Time, Next Year" (1977) (Los Angeles)
"Agnes of God" (March 30, 1982 - September 4, 1983) (replacement for Elizabeth Ashley starting in spring of 1983)
"Love Letters" (1990) (Los Angeles)
"Sunset Boulevard" (1995 - 1996) (Toronto)
Awards and nominations
;Awards
1962 Tony Award for Best Actress - "No Strings"
1968 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star - Female - "Julia"
;Nominations
1969 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series - "Julia"
1963 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - "Naked City"
1970 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Television Series - "Julia"
1975 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture - "Claudine"
1975 Academy Award for Best Actress - "Claudine"
1989 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - "A Different World"
1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Children's Special/Series - "The Sweetest Gift"
2000 Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series/Television Movie - "Having a Say: The Delany Sisters' 1st 100 Years"
2005 Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Drama Series - "Soul Food"
2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series - "Grey's Anatomy"
External links
(Diahann Carroll official website)
(Archive of American Television Interview with Diahann Carroll March 2, 1994 on Google Video)
(The HistoryMakers) Biography
(Diahann Carroll's oral history video excerpts) at The National Visionary Leadership Project
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Diahann Carroll.
