Ellen Holly, pioneer One life to live The actress who became the first black person to star in a soap opera has died. She was 92 years old.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, her publicist Cheryl L. Duncan announced that the actress died in her sleep on Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York.
Holly began her career on the stages in New York and Boston, and made her Broadway debut in Too late Phalarope 1956. She acted in other Broadway productions such as The face of a hero, Tiger Tiger Burning Bright and The hand is on the door.
She has also appeared in television shows includingBig story (1957), Defenders (1963), Benedict himself (1963), dr. Kildare (1964) i Doctors and nurses (1963 and 1964).
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Ellen Holly in ‘One Life to Live’.
ABC Photo Archives/Getty
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In 1968, Holly became a household name playing Carla Benari on ABC One life to live. Her soap debut was historic as Holly became the first black actress to secure a long-term contract on a daytime soap.
She continued to play that role until 1980, and later reprized her character from 1983 to 1985.
Holly has championed black representation on television throughout her career. In fact, the actress got her historic role One life to live when the creator of the soap Agnes Nixon came across the author’s text for which she had written The New York Times entitled “How Black Do You Have to Be?” in 1968.
Nixon signed Holly to a one-year contract for $300 a week, and the actress took on the role of a passing white woman whose race was not revealed until the end of her first season. In the series, a white doctor (Robert Milli) falls in love with Holly’s character after treating her for a nervous breakdown when she discovers that she is attracted to a black intern (Peter De Anda).
Carla’s “attempt to come to terms with her racial identity and love triangle with two doctors” launched the soap’s ratings “into the stratosphere,” according to Holly’s obituary. As a result, other popular soaps like All My Children and General Hospital began adopting black stories in response to Carla’s popularity, which helped ABC “dominate daytime for two decades.
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Later in her career, Holly spoke out about being “underpaid” and facing “mistreatment” from the show’s executives along with some of her black cast mates.
“I feel like I’ve been hired as a temporary trick to rocket a payload of white stars into orbit. Basically, that’s how I was used. And that’s how it turned out,” she explained in a 2012 interview Root.
Over the years, Holly has written numerous pieces for The New York Times and published her autobiography One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress 1996 She eventually retired from her career in television and became a librarian at the White Plains Public Library after passing the civil service exam in the 1990s.
“She described the years she spent there as some of the happiest of her life,” her obit states. “Holly had many friends and was a beloved member of her White Plains community … She is greatly missed and greatly celebrated.”
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According to the obituary, per Holly’s wishes there will be no funeral. In lieu, her loved ones ask that expressions of sympathy be in the form of donations to the Obama Presidential Center or St. Mary’s Children’s Research Hospital. Judas.
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Source: HIS Education