Diahann Carroll

Carroll also had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom A Different World as Whitley Gilbert's (Jasmine Guy) mother. Viola Dana has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard. She has also starred in the series Dynasty and The Colbys. She died later the same year from heart failure in Woodland Hills, California. In 1974 she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Claudine. In 1987 she was interviewed for the documentary Bustor Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow. Opera singer Loulie Jean Norman provided Carroll's singing voice. More than fifty years after her retirement from the screen, she appeared in the documentary, Hollywood (1980) discussing her career as a silent era film star, and of the Hollywood of the 1920s.

and Pearl Bailey. Born Virginia Flugrath in Brooklyn, New York, Dana entered films in 1910 and by the time she made her final film appearance in 1929, she had appeared in almost 100 films. In 1959, she played Clara in the film version of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess along with such distinguished actors as Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr. Viola Dana, sometimes credited as Viola Flugrath, (June 26, 1897 - July 3, 1987), was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent movies. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role. Her first film role was in Carmen Jones in 1954, but her big break came when she became the first African American actress to star in her own television series in which she did not play a domestic worker, when Julia debuted in 1968.

Born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx, New York, she attended the New York City High School of the Performing Arts, along with schoolmate Billy Dee Williams. Diahann Carroll (born July 15, 1935) is an American actress and singer. No Strings (1962) in the part of Barbara Woodruff. House of Flowers (1954) in the part of Ottilie.