“Forgotten Hollywood”- Remembering Diahann Carroll…
“`Diahann Carroll was the Oscar-nominated actor and singer who won critical acclaim as the first African American woman to star in a non-stereotypical role in a television series in Julia. The groundbreaking situation comedy aired from 1968 to 1971.
“`Carroll attended the High School for the Performing Arts. She began her career as a model in a segregated industry; she got much of her work from publications such as black magazine Ebony. An appearance from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts led to nightclub engagements. She had professional and personal liaisons with Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, and Sidney Poitier.
“`She co-starred in plays previously considered exclusive territory for white actresses: Same Time Next Year, Agnes of God, and Sunset Boulevard. Carroll won her Tony portraying a high-fashion American model in Paris who enjoys a romantic encounter with a white novelist in the 1959 Richard Rodgers musical No Strings.
“`Her movie career was sporadic. She began with a secondary role in Carmen Jones in 1954, and five years later, she appeared in Porgy and Bess. Her singing voice was dubbed because it wasn’t considered strong enough for the Gershwin opera. The 1974 film Claudine provided her most memorable role. She would end up being nominated for her Oscar, and she recalled the filming a magical experience.
“`In the 1980s, she joined the long-running prime-time soap opera Dynasty as Dominique Deveraux, the ultra glamorous half-sister of Blake Carrington. Another memorable role was on the small-screen series A Different World. She recently guest-starred on Grey’s Anatomy.
“`Her most celebrated marriage was in 1987 to singer Vic Damone. She was also engaged to David Frost.
“`A trailblazer in every sense of the word, Diahann Carroll was eighty-four.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Friday, October 4th, 2019 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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