Diahann Carroll passed away today at the age of 84 from cancer according to what her only child Suzanne Kay told CBS.
Diahann Carroll was a beautiful singer and talented actress, but she also opened so many doors for African-American women in the business. In 1962, she was the first Black actress to win a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical – No Strings.
Six years later, she followed that up by being the first Black woman to lead a sitcom and not be a domestic worker. She played a widowed single mother who worked as a nurse and supported her family by herself. The show also took on several hot-topic issues like her son being called the N-word. While the series was not a groundbreaking one per se, her character was. Plus, it is enjoyable to watch.
In 1975, she received an Oscar nomination for playing Claudine, a struggling single mother being courted by James Earl Jones.
In the ’80s, she was once again getting us to tune in every week to watch her on the tube. This time it was Dominique Deveraux on Dynasty and its spinoff The Colbys. She had a few more memorable TV roles on A Different World, Soul Food and Grey’s Anatomy.
Her final role was on White Collar, as the women who owned the home where Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) lived and in ways was like a mother to him. She classed up the show that was already very classy.
Carroll was a class act. Today, we should remember this groundbreaking talent for the legend she will always be. Watch her many roles because each one was perfected by her.
