This page uses content from the Diahann Carroll biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Diahann Carroll (born July 17 1935) is an Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award winning American actress and singer. Born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx, New York, she attended Manhattan's School of Performing Arts, along with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams.

Her family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City when she was one and a half years old.

Career

Her first film assignment was a supporting role in Carmen Jones in 1954, playing a friend of the sultry Carmen (Dorothy Dandridge). In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess along with such distinguished actors as 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 the opera singer Loulie Jean Norman standing in for Carroll. In 1974 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Claudine.

Carroll's is probably best known for her big break in securing the lead role in Julia in 1968. This landmark accomplishment established Carroll as 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 for the role in 1969, and won the Golden Globe Award for “Best Actress In A Television Series” in 1968 [1]. Her first Emmy nomination came in 1963 for her work in Naked City. Some of Carroll's other earlier television work includes appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan, and The Hollywood Palace variety show.

In the 1980s, she starred in the series Dynasty and The Colbys, as the jet setter, Dominique Deveraux-Lloyd. Carroll mused at the lavish wardrobing on these shows, comparing it to the US$50 budget for her nurse's uniform on Julia. It was for her recurring role as Marion Gilbert in A Different World that she received her third Emmy nomination 1989. In 2006, Carroll made a guest appearance in the television comedy/drama Grey's Anatomy as 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 lead role, crazed silent movie star Norma Desmond, with the role of Joe Gillis played by Rex Smith.

Personal life

Carroll has had four marriages. She married last in 1987 to her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, which lasted until 1996.

Carroll is a breast cancer activist and survivor, who in order to draw attention to the cause, invited a camera crew into her treatment room for a national broadcast special[2].

Theatre and Stage

• Sunset Boulevard - Norma Desmond
• Agnes of God (1982) - Doctor Martha Livingstone (replaced Elizabeth Ashley)
• No Strings (1962) - Barbara Woodruff
• House of Flowers (1954) - Ottilie

Television Work

• The Man in the Moon (1960)
• Julia (1968-1971)
• Death Scream (1975)
• The Diahann Carroll Show (1976) (summer replacement series)
• The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
• Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (miniseries)
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
• Sister, Sister (1982)
• Dynasty (cast member from 1984-1987)
• From the Dead of Night (1989)
• Murder in Black and White (1990)
• Sunday in Paris (1991)
• 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)
• Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000)
• The Court (2002) (canceled after 6 episodes)

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)
• Jirimpimbira: An African Folk Tale (1995) (short subject) (narrator)
• Eve's Bayou (1997)

Stage Work

• House of Flowers (December 30, 1954 - May 21, 1955)
• No Strings (March 15, 1962 - August 3, 1963) (replaced by Barbara McNair)
• Agnes of God (March 30, 1982 - September 4, 1983) (replacement for Elizabeth Ashley)

External links

• Diahann Carroll offical website

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.