Diahann Carroll death: Trailblazing actor who starred in Julia and Dynasty dies aged 84

Carroll had been suffering from cancer

Diahann Carroll, a versatile singer and stage actress who blazed a trail for black women on American television in the late Sixties, died on Friday at the age of 84.

Carroll had been suffering from cancer and died in her sleep at home in Los Angeles with her daughter by her side, Brian Panella, her manager, said.

“She had been fighting it for quite some time, and did not want the world to know,” said Panella, who had managed her career for 20 years.

With a handful of movie roles and an award-winning Broadway career already under her belt, Carroll landed the title role in the 1968 television show 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 and earned her a Golden Globe Award, was a breakthrough for African-American women who were only beginning to make inroads on the small screen at the time.

Carroll’s success in Julia set her up for another title role in the 1974 movie, Claudine, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Playing opposite James Earl Jones, she played a single mother again, this time living in Harlem with six children and on public relief.

She went on to play numerous roles, mostly in television shows and made-for-TV movies, until just a few years ago. Notably, she portrayed Dominique Deveraux​ in Dynasty in the Eighties.

Carol Diahann Johnson was born in the Bronx borough of New York City on 17 July, 1935, the daughter of a subway conductor, and began singing with her Harlem church choir at age six, according to IMDB.com.

In 1954, she landed her first singing role on Broadway in the musical House of Flowers, before going on to play Clara in Otto Preminger’s big screen version of Porgy and Bess in 1959.

Her performance as a fashion model in the 1962 Broadway musical No Strings won her a Tony Award.

Diahann Carroll attends the Crystal + Lucy Awards on 11 June, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Women In Film / MaxMara)

Carroll, who had been married four times, also sang in nightclubs and recorded several record albums from the late Fifties to the mid-Sixties.

“She was a tremendous talent and just a very unique human being,” said Panella. “I was blessed to have her as my client for all of that time.”

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay was among those who paid tribute to Carroll on Friday, writing on Twitter: “Diahann Carroll walked this earth for 84 years and broke ground with every footstep. An icon. One of the all-time greats. She blazed trails through dense forests and elegantly left diamonds along the path for the rest of us to follow. Extraordinary life. Thank you, Ms Carroll.”

Actor Gabrielle Union tweeted: “She is, was, and forever will be AN ICON!! Simply everything, EVERYTHING!”

Empire co-creator Lee Daniels shared his own homage, writing: “I’m at an utter loss of words right now. The impact you have had on me, Hollywood, America, the World is telling that God exists. I love you.”

Additional reporting by agencies