Diahann Carroll

 Diahann Carroll, born Carol Diahann Johnson (July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019)

She was an actress, singer and model. She rose to stardom in performances in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including Carmen Jones in 1954 and Porgy and Bess in 1959. In 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for best actress, a first for a black woman, for her role in the Broadway musical No Strings. Her 1968 debut in Julia, the first series on American television to star a black woman in a non stereotypical role, was a milestone both in her career and the medium. In the 1980s she played the role of a diva in the primetime soap opera Dynasty. Carroll was the recipient of numerous stage and screen nominations and awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress In A Television Series in 1968. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the 1974 film Claudine.

Carroll was a founding member of the Celebrity Action Council, a volunteer group of celebrity women who served the women's outreach of the Los Angeles Mission, working with women in rehabilitation from problems with drugs, alcohol or prostitution. She helped to form the group along with other female television personalities including Mary Frann, Donna Mills, Linda Gray and Joan Van Ark. Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She said the diagnosis "stunned" her because there was no family history of breast cancer and she had always had a healthy lifestyle. She underwent nine weeks of radiation therapy, and was clear since. She frequently spoke on the need for early detection and prevention of the disease.

Carroll was married four times, and had one children from her first marriage. Carroll's fourth marriage was to singer Vic Damone in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996. Carroll died of cancer on October 4, 2019 in Los Angeles. She was 84 years old.
Carroll is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.