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Feb. 9, 2006 Television came of age in the 1960s, exerting its influence on America’s social and political landscape. During that time, the paradigm of African-American woman as brassy, heavy-set domestic help slowly began to shift. Cicely Tyson, as office secretary Jane Foster on the short-lived CBS series East Side/West Side, and Nichelle Nichols as the communications officer Lt. Uhura on NBC’s cult classic Star Trek proved black women could play diverse, non-domestic roles. But in 1968, the shift got a major push from a young actress named Diahann Carroll. When the series Julia debuted on NBC that September, it marked the first time that an African-American woman headlined her own program, in a role that didn’t involve cooking, cleaning or caring for someone else’s family. Long before landing that historic role, Diahann Carroll, born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx in 1935, had already cut her acting chops on both the stage and the screen. Her first two motion-picture appearances came under the aegis of director Otto Preminger, in Carmen Jones in 1954 and Porgy and Bess in 1959. She also appeared in the dramas Goodbye Again and Paris Blues in 1961. In 1962, she shared the Tony Award for Best Actress (Musical) for her performance in No Strings. And she made a number of guest appearances on established TV shows, including Peter Gunn, Naked City and The Milton Berle Show. On Julia, Carroll played Julia Baker, a nurse who is left to raise her young son alone, after her husband, an officer in the US Air Force, is killed in Vietnam. Her experiences at work, in the medical offices of a Los Angeles aerospace company, and at home in a racially-integrated apartment complex, provided the material for the series. Julia would end its run in 1971, but not before earning praise from critics and accolades from its peers. The show earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (for Diahann Carroll) after its first season. Carroll won a Golden Globe for her work on the series. The show’s success among viewers paved the way for other black-themed programs, as television continued to expand its reach. Carroll’s success with Julia led to other opportunities. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, for her work in the movie Claudine in 1974. She also headlined The Diahann Carroll Show, a four-week variety series on CBS in the summer of 1976. And she appeared in a motion-picture adaptation of Maya Angelou’s book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in 1979. In 1984, Diahann Carroll made history again when she joined the cast of ABC’s primetime soap Dynasty. For three seasons she played Dominique Deveraux, a glamorous and treacherous businesswoman with a taste for the finer things. In other words, it was a character completely opposite the one that made her famous. And, as it turned out, Dominique had Carrington blood, as she was the love child of oil magnate Blake Carrington’s (John Forsythe’s) father. She also made several appearances on the spinoff series The Colbys during its two-year run from 1985 to 1987. Carroll had been part of a world that few African-American actors visited during the 1980s—the duplicitous and dangerous world of Big Industry and Old Money. In 1995, Carroll became the first African-American actress to play Norma Desmond, the washed-up silent film star who attempts a desperate comeback, in the Toronto premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of the hit film Sunset Boulevard. She had broken similar ground in 1983, when she replaced Elizabeth Ashley in the award-winning Broadway play Agnes of God. Like all great actors, though, Diahann Carroll has a couple turkeys on the résumé. One of them was an obligatory appearance on ABC’s powerhouse series The Love Boat. Another was the cult classic Star Wars Holiday Special, a Christmas-themed get-together in the universe of the megahit movie. Today, Diahann Carroll is a national spokesperson for breast cancer awareness and research. And at 71, an age where many people begin to slow down, Diahann Carroll still remains in demand. Her historic contributions to entertainment have earned her the distinction of being a Living Groundbreaker. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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