Saturday 17 June 2017

Diahann Carroll born 17 July 1935


Diahann Carroll (July 17, 1935 - October 4, 2019) was an American actress and singer.
Having appeared some of the earliest major studio films to feature African-American casts such as Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess, she starred in 1968's Julia, one of the first series on American television to star an African American woman in a non-stereotypical role. Later she created the role of Dominique Deveraux on the popular prime time soap opera, Dynasty.
She was the recipient of numerous stage and screen awards and nominations. Carroll had been married four times and became the mother of a daughter in 1960. She was a breast cancer survivor and activist.
Carroll was born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx, New York, to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk. Her family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City when she was an infant. She attended Music & Art High School, along with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams.
At the age of 18, Carroll got her big break when she appeared as a contestant on the Dumont Television Network program, Chance of a Lifetime, hosted by Dennis James. On the show which aired January 8, 1954, Carroll took the $1,000 top prize for her rendition of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein song, "Why Was I Born?" She went on to win the following four weeks. Engagements at Manhattan's Café Society and Latin Quarter nightclubs soon followed.
Strangely, Diahann did not have any charting hits during her recording career but her stage and screen exposure ensured that most of her releases enjoyed healthy sales.
 
                             
 
Carroll's film debut was a supporting role in Carmen Jones (1954) as a friend of the sultry lead character. She then starred in the Broadway musical, House of Flowers. In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, but her character's singing parts were dubbed by opera singer Loulie Jean Norman. In 1962 she won the Tony Award for best actress (a first for a black woman) for the role of Barbara Woodruff in the Samuel A. Taylor and Richard Rodgers musical No Strings. In 1974 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress  for Claudine.
Carroll is best known for her title role in the 1968 television series Julia, which made her the first African American actress to star in her own television series where she did not play a domestic worker. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1969, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress In A Television Series” in 1968. Her first Emmy nomination had come in 1963 for Naked City. Some of her other earlier work included appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Judy Garland and Ed Sullivan, and on The Hollywood Palace variety show.
A renewed interest in film led Diahann to the dressed-down title role of Claudine (1974), as a Harlem woman raising six children on her own. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, but her acting career would become more and more erratic after this period. She did return, however, to the stage with productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Agnes of God". While much ado was made about her return to series work as a fashion-plate nemesis to Joan Collins' ultra-vixen character on the glitzy primetime soap Dynasty (1981), it became much about nothing as the juicy pairing failed to ignite. Diahann's character was also a part of the short-lived "Dynasty" spin-off The Colbys (1985). In 1986, Diahann Carroll published her memoirs, simply entitled "Diahann!".
Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s she toured with her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, with occasional acting appearances to fill in the gaps. Some of her finest work came with TV-movies, notably her century-old Sadie Delany in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) and as troubled singer Natalie Cole's mother in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000). She also portrayed silent screen diva Norma Desmond in the musical version of "Sunset Blvd." and toured America performing classic Broadway standards in the concert show "Almost Like Being in Love: The Lerner and Loewe Songbook." Most recently she has had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy (2005) and White Collar (2009).
In 2010, Carroll was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docudrama entitled, 1 a Minute, and she appeared as Nana in two Lifetime movies: At Risk and The Front, movie adaptations of two Patricia Cornwell novels.
A breast cancer survivor and activist, Carroll was scheduled to return to the Broadway stage in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun as Mama, but withdrew prior to opening citing the demands of the rehearsal and performance schedule. “Unfortunately I’ve been told to stop performing by my doctors,” said the velvet-voiced star of movie musicals during a Daily Express Interview. “I have acid reflux, which is very damaging to the vocal cords. I could spend all day every day and every dime I earn trying to correct it but I’ve had to accept it’s part of my ageing process. It’s a pain in the neck,” she says, pun intended.

“I can still sing in the shower but it’s not possible for me to perform for 90 minutes on stage any longer. I love singing and I miss it terribly.” She died from cancer in Los Angeles, California on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, aged 84.
(Info edited from Wikipedia & IMDB & Daily Express)

2 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Diahann Carroll - This Is What I Call Love - The RCA Victor Debut Recordings” go here:

https://www.mediafire.com/?g9h47lp894m348u

1. Help Yourself (Borek-Cooper-Guion)
2. I Went To The Village (Henry-Wallington)
3. Rebel In Town (Adelson-Baxter)
4. I Didn't Know What Time It Was (Rodgers-Hart)
5. Don't Cry Baby (Johnson-Unger-Bernie)
6. This Is What I Call Love (Dubey-Karr)
7. What's Good About Goodbye (H. Arlen-L. Robin)
8. My Shining Hour (H. Arlen-I. Mercer)
9. It's Only A Paper Moon (H. Arlen-O. Rose-E.Y. Harburg)
10. A Sleeping Bee (H. Arlen-T. Capote)
11. You're A Builder-Upper (H.Arlen-I.Gershwin-E.Y.Harburg)
12. Out Of This World (H.Arlen-J.Mercer)
13. Hit The Road To Dreamland (H. Arlen-J. Mercer)
14. Come Rain Or Come Shine (H.Arlen -J.Mercer)
15. I Wonder What Became Of Me (H.Arlen-J.Mercer)
16. Down With Love (H.Arlen-E.Y.Harburg)
17. Over The Rainbow (H.Arlen-E.Y.Harburg)
18. Let's Take The Long Way Home (H.Arlen-J.Mercer)

ALBUM INFO

Tracks 1 & 2 recorded December 1955, with Joe Reisman and his Orchestra.
Tracks 3 & 4 recorded May 1956, with Joe Reisman and his Orchestra.
Tracks 5 & 6 recorded November 1956, with Joe Reisman and his Orchestra.
Tracks 7 to 18 recorded November 1956 with Ralph Burns and his Orchestra.
All tracks recorded in New York.

A collection of eighteen great songs sung by the legendary Diahann Carroll, who was famous for her appearances in the Broadway musicals "House Of Flowers" and "No Strings", her long-running tenure in the iconic "Dynasty" and "Julia", and many hugely successful recordings.

These recordings, made in the fifties, date from the early days of the performer's long career. Not only do they offer all the songs from her album "Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen Songs" but also the very first singles she recorded, which have never been available before on CD, including the haunting "I Went To The Village". All the titles have now been most sensitively digitally restored, and are offered here for the very first time.

boppinbob said...

For “Diahann Carroll - Easy To Love - Four Original LPs” go here:

Disc 1 - https://www.mediafire.com/?wm1d7gr8cvdk6oo

BEST BEAT FORWARD - 1958
1. I MAY BE WRONG
2. EASY TO LOVE
3. THIS CAN'T BE LOVE
4. A FINE ROMANCE
5. CHEEK TO CHEEK
6. OLD DEVIL MOON
7. LOVE (YOUR MAGIC SPELL IS EVERYWHERE)
8. YOU'RE AN OLD SMOOTHIE
9. FALLING IN LOVE WITH LOVE
10. S'POSIN'
11. IF I LOVE AGAIN
12. THE SONG IS ENDED
THE PERSIAN ROOM PRESENTS - 1960
13. EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES
14. MISTY
15. SHOPPING AROUND
16. GOODY GOODY
17. I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN
18. ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL
19. Medley: AM I BLUE / TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE / HAPPINESS IS A THING CALLED JOE
20. Medley: DINAH / AFTER YOU'VE GONE / STORMY WEATHER
21. HEAT WAVE
22. Reprise: HAPPINESS IS A THING CALLED JOE

(N.B. Tracks 13 – 22 are from a concert album. For continuity I suggest you use the “no space between tracks” option when burning this disc).

Disc 2 - https://www.mediafire.com/?9k7w07jgm1ho4m4

DIAHANN AND THE ANDRE PREVIN TRIO - 1960
1. THE PARTY'S OVER
2. SPRING IS HERE
3. BUT NOT FOR ME
4. GLAD TO BE UNHAPPY
5. CHANGE OF HEART
6. IT'S ALL RIGHT WITH ME
7. I SHOULD CARE
8. NOBODY'S HEART
9. WHY CAN'T YOU BEHAVE
10. WHERE ARE YOU
11. IN LOVE IN VAIN
12. GINGERBREAD JOY
FUN LIFE - 1961
13. LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE
14. RUNNIN' WILD
15. ONCE IS ENOUGH FOR ME
16. FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN CAN'T HELP IT
17. DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME
18. I'M NOT AT ALL IN LOVE
19. THE BOYS IN THE BACK ROOM
20. FUN LIFE
21. DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO
22. THERE'LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE
23. BLAH BLAH BLAH
24. I DON'T CARE

Diahann Carroll's is perhaps best known today for being an Actress and appearing in TV classics like 'Dynasty' and most recently the US TV Drama, 'White Collar'. However Jasmine Records feel that her recording career is well overdue a reappraisal and this collection is a perfect introduction to the early years.
The four albums on offer here see her at the peak of her singing career, accompanied by sumptuous orchestrations and the jazz trio of Andre Previn show her to be a consummate song stylist.

Strangely, Diahann did not have any charting hits during her recording career but her stage and screen exposure ensured that most of her releases enjoyed healthy sales. Many of these releases have barely surfaced during the CD era and this compilation gives the perfect opportunity to rediscover her outstanding talent.