Early years
Carroll was born
Carol Diahann Johnson
in
The Bronx, New York, to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk.
[1] 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.
[2] 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
.
[3]
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.
[4] 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.
[5] [6]
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.
[7]
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
References
- Diahann Carroll Biography
- Diahann Carroll
- Diahann Carroll Collars Role on USA Pilot
- Blood Ties: 2 Officers' Long Path to Mob Murder Indictments
- Diahann Carroll: Biography
- Diahann Carroll: Biography, Photos, Movies, TV, Credits
- Richard Blackwell: Scathing Critic of Star Style