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| Birth Name(s) : Carol Diahann Johnson |
Date of Birth: July 17, 1935 |
| Status:
N/A
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Actor/Musician |
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Full Diahann Carroll Biography
Actress and singer, born Carol Diann Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. She has a younger sister, Lydia.
When Carroll was just ten years old, she received a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art. She went on to study sociology at New York University, working part-time as a model, in TV bit parts, and as a nightclub singer. Carroll's Broadway debut was in the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote production House of Flowers (1954), and her film debut was in the immensely successful Carmen Jones (1954), a modern version of Bizet's opera Carmen, performed by an all-black cast. She also appeared in the film version of Porgy and Bess (1959). Carroll was back on Broadway in 1962, winning a Tony Award for No Strings.
In 1968, she broke important ground in Hollywood by starring in the TV sitcom Julia, about a beautiful and independent single career woman and mother, who happened to be black. This was the first TV show to star a black personality, and her character's dignified occupation as a nurse was a significant improvement over the stereotypical roles often assigned to black performers on TV in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968, Carroll was nominated for an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Julia, and she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress the same year.
Carroll published her autobiography, Diahann, in 1986, and in 1997 she launched a signature line of clothing and eyewear targeted to the needs of African-American women. In 1998, Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following successful treatment, she became the spokeswoman for the National Women's Cancer Research Alliance, and an outspoken advocate of early cancer prevention and detection. She is also well known for her work on behalf of AIDS research.
Carroll has been married four times and has a daughter, Suzanne, by her first husband, Monte Kay, a Jewish casting director and owner of the jazz club Birdland. Carroll's father disapproved of the interracial marriage and did not attend the wedding. Her third marriage ended when her husband, Robert DeLeon, was killed in an automobile accident. |
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Additional Diahann Carroll Biography
Diahann Carroll (b. July 17, 1935) is an American Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe- and Tony Award-winning 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.
Carrol'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 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 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 probably best known for her title 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. 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, Judy Garland and Ed Sullivan, and The Hollywood Palace variety show.Diahann Carroll as Dominique Deveraux on Dynasty.
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.
Carroll has had four marriages, one of which produced a daughter, Suzanne Kay Bamford, who became a freelance media journalist. 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.
Daytime Emmy Awards
- 1963 Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Naked City (Nominated)
- 1969 Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series: Julia (Nominated)
- 1999 Outstanding Performance in a Children's Special/Series: The Sweetest Gift (Nominated)
Golden Globes
- 1968 Best TV Star- Female: Julia (Winner)
- 1970 Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Television Series: Julia (Nominated)
- 1975 Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture: Claudine (Nominated)
Image Awards
- 2000 Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series/Television Movie: Having a Say: The Delany Sisters' 1st 100 Years (Nominated)
- 2005 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Drama Series: Soul Food (Nominated) |
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Diahann Carroll Quote(s)
| I'm not a fighter. I usually smile and then go into my room and cry my eyes out. |
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