The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Carroll reflects on a career of firsts
Actress welcomed a visitor to her “fabulous” suite at Washington’s Willard Intercontinental Hotel.
» Diahann Carroll, at 81, welcomed a visitor to her “fabulous” suite at Washington’s Willard Intercontinental Hotel.
She is glamorous in that old Hollywood way but also kind, first asking about you.
Carroll mentioned that she was celebrating a birthday in a few days but laughed at herself when she couldn’t remember quite how old she will be. “Aging,” she said, tossing her honey-colored hair, “is a fulltime job.”
As a young woman and into her middle years, Carroll had a career of firsts. The first black actress to win a Tony, for the 1962 musical “No Strings,” in which her fashion-model character was involved in an interracial romance. The star of “Julia,” the first sitcom centered on a black character who was not a servant — she played a widowed nurse and mother — for which she won a 1969 Golden Globe and was the first black actress nominated for a comedic-lead Emmy.
Then in 1984 came a star turn on “Dynasty” as Dominique Deveraux, an elegant songstress and businesswoman whom Carroll declared at the time would be television’s “first black bitch.” She instructed the prime-time soap’s writers to “just pretend that I’m a white male ... and write the character from there.” And there, yet another breakthrough, America getting to watch a black woman complaining about the off-brand caviar she had been served.
She left the show in 1987, in her early 50s. And then? Well, you know how it goes for an actress. The juicy roles dry up. The interest wanes. For her part, Carroll is in the period of life when one reflects on legacy.
Her mission in Washington was to promote a new documentary film project, “Sullivision: Ed Sullivan and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” a look at the legendary midcentury variety show host and the groundbreaking African-American artists who shared his stage at a time when images of blacks on television were rare.
Carroll was a guest on the show nine times, and it bolstered her career, much as it did for Harry Belafonte, Diana Ross, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Richard Pryor and many more.
Carroll’s daughter, Suzanne Kay, is co-producing the not-yet-completed film with Sullivan’s granddaughter, Margo Speciale, and Carroll joined the filmmakers on a panel Saturday at the 5th annual March on Washington Film Festival to discuss it.
On the panel, Carroll seemed overcome with a mother’s pride. She kissed her daughter on the cheek and declared the work she is doing on the film, “just wonderful.”
Later, from her hotel suite, Carroll again made clear that she was here because she wants to help her daughter. “I’m just mom. This is her work and I must respect it,” she said with determination. In other words: Carroll did not want to steal Kay’s spotlight.
Carroll was slated to play the role of Mama in a 2014 Broadway revival of “Raisin in the Sun” but dropped out because the rehearsal and performance schedule was too wearying. “I had to get clear that I’m entitled to have a period of time when I can say, ‘I don’t think I want to do that,’” she said. “I hope no one feels that I’m being [difficult] but I do know that I’ve been working my whole life.”
She is content now to support her daughter’s work — though she intends, as always, to look fabulous while doing it.