Ellen Holly, ‘One Life to Live’ Star and First Black Actor to Lead a Daytime Television Show, Dies at 92
variety.comJ. Kim Murphy Ellen Holly, a stage and screen actor who became the first Black star of a daytime television series with her role as Carla Gray in ABC’s soap opera “One Life to Live,” died Wednesday at Cavalry Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y.
She was 92. Holly’s death was confirmed by a representative for the actor. Cast on “One Life to Live” in 1968, Holly stayed with the long-running series through 1980, before returning from 1983 to 1985.
Producer Agnes Nixon cast Holly in the role after reading the actor’s New York Times opinion piece “How Black Do You Have To Be?,” in which Holly recounted her personal difficulties in finding acting work as a light-skinned Black woman.
Carla Gray’s main conflict in the series regarded a love triangle between two doctors — one white, one Black. The arc predated storylines on “All My Children” and “General Hospital” that also directly confronted race.
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