Diahann Carroll
DIAHANN Carroll, a versatile singer and stage actress who quietly blazed a trail for black women on American television in the late 1960s by playing a widowed nurse and single mother in Julia, died on October 4, aged 84.
Carroll, whose career also was punctuated by a pioneering Tony Award and an Oscar nomination, had been suffering from cancer and died in her sleep at home in Los Angeles.
With a handful of movie roles and an awardwinning Broadway career already under her belt, Carroll landed the title role in the 1968 situation comedy Julia. She played Julia Baker, a nurse struggling to raise a young son by herself after her husband was killed in the Vietnam War.
The show, which ran for three seasons on NBC and earned Carroll a Golden Globe Award and Emmy nomination, was a breakthrough for AfricanAmerican women who were only beginning to make inroads on the small screen at the time.
Carroll’s close friend and fellow vocalist from that era, Dionne Warwick, reacted with grief, saying, ‘‘My personal world has taken a downward spiral. Losing my dear friend and mentor comes as a true hurt to my heart.’’
Carroll’s success set her up for another title role in the 1974 movie, Claudine, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as best actress. Playing opposite James Earl Jones, she reprised her singlemother persona, this time living in Harlem with six children and on public relief.
She went on to play numerous screen roles, mostly in television shows and madeforTV movies. Besides Julia, she is perhaps best remembered by TV audiences for her role as Dominique Deveraux, a glamorous diva on the 1980s hit primetime soap opera Dynasty .— Reuters