Diahann Carroll died from complications from breast cancer, her representative said.
Actress Diahann Carroll, who famously starred on “Julia,” has died at the age of 84.
Carroll died from complications from breast cancer at her home in West Hollywood, California, her publicist told the New York Times.
Carroll was well known for her role as Julia Baker in NBC’s “Julia.” The role, in which Carroll played a widowed nurse who was raising her young son alone, was the first time in American television that a black woman was portrayed as a professional.
The series ran from 1968 to 1971.
"We were saying to the country, 'We're going to present a very upper middle-class black woman raising her child, and her major concentration is not going to be about suffering in the ghetto,” Carroll told "The Interviews: An Oral History of Television" in 1998.
She also said that at the time the show aired many felt that African Americans had slim opportunities in television and film.
“Julia” hit No. 7 on the Nielsen’s rating in its first season, and Carroll received a Golden Globe for her role and an Emmy nomination.
In 1974, Carroll starred in the movie “Claudine,” for which she later earned a best actor nomination. She also starred on ABC’s "Dynasty" in the 1980s, playing fashion diva Dominique Deveraux.
Carroll, who was originally from the Bronx, is survived by her daughter, journalist Suzanne Kay Bamford.
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