Diahann Carroll
Actor
Biography
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.
Filmography
Eve's Bayou
as Elzora 1997
Carmen Jones
as Myrt 1954
The Masked Saint
as Ms. Edna 2016
Peeples
as Nana Peeples 2013
Paris Blues
as Connie Lampson 1961
The Five Heartbeats
as Eleanor Potter 1991
Goodbye Again
as Nightclub Singer 1961
Claudine
as Claudine Price 1974
Sidney
as Self (archive footage) 2022
Hurry Sundown
as Vivian Thurlow 1967
The Split
as Ellen "Ellie" Kennedy 1968
Porgy and Bess
as Clara 1959
At Risk
as Nana 2010
The Front
as Nana 2010
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
as Self (archive footage) 1970
Color Adjustment
as Self 1992