First Black Lead On A Soap Opera Dead At 92

The soap opera and Broadway actress and writer for The New York Times died in her sleep on Dec. 6 at Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, New York.

Ellen Holly, America’s first Black lead on a daytime soap, passed away at 92 on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.

Holly, a Broadway actress, writer for The New York Times and a soap star who played the character Carla Gray in One Life to Live on ABC between 1968 to 1980 and 1983 to 1985, died in her sleep at Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, New York. There will be no funeral per the trailblazing actress’ wishes. Instead, the Obama Presidential Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will accept donations on Holly’s behalf.

The groundbreaking actress landed her role on the ABC soap opera after a producer saw her in The New York Times article “How Black Do You Have To Be.” The piece expounded on what it was like to struggle to land roles as a lighter-skinned actress. The controversial role on the daytime soap opera was a risk. She had to navigate race and love — in a love triangle involving a Black doctor and a white doctor.

In the last years of her life, the first Black daytime television actress who was also featured in School Daze by Spike Lee had begun working on a documentary. The film was supposed to chronicle her life and the activism that her family was involved in.

Holly had previously told her life story in a 1996-published autobiography, One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress.

Her life consisted of many creative accomplishments. Some included studying with internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham, who created the Dunham technique, working opposite James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, and others, and debuting on Broadway in “Too Late the Phalarope,” a press release noted. She also appeared in The Guiding Light, In the Heat of the Night, 10,000 Black Men Named George, Take a Giant Step, and Cops and Robbers.

The One Life To Live actress was born in Manhattan on Jan. 16, 1931.