Ellen Holly, trailblazing star of One Life to Live, dies aged 92

Holly became the first Black actor to lead a daytime soap opera with her role of Carla Gray on ABC’s hit daytime show

Ellen Holly (Television Academy / YouTube)

Ellen Holly, the trailblazing actor best known for her lead role as Carla Gray on ABC’s hit soap opera One Life to Live, has died. She was 92.

Her death on Wednesday (6 December) at Cavalry Hospital in the Bronx, New York, was confirmed by a representative, according to Variety.

Born on 16 January 1931 in Manhattan, New York, Holly became the first Black star of a daytime television show with her role on the long-running drama. She played the part from 1968 through 19880, before returning to the series from 1983 to 1985.

The show’s producer, Agnes Nixon, is said to have cast Holly in the role after reading her New York Times op-ed titled “How Black Do You Have to Be?” in which she detailed the struggles of landing acting jobs as a light-skinned Black woman.

Holly later disclosed the mistreatment and underpay she and her Black co-stars faced while working on One Life to Live in her 1996 autobiography, One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress.

Years before becoming a notable screen actor, she made her Broadway debut in the 1956 adaptation of Too Late the Phalarope. She also starred in productions such as Face of a Hero, Tiger Tiger Burning Bright and A Hand Is on the Gate.

Her first TV role was in a 1957 episode of the nine-season drama The Big Story. Following her exit from One Life to Live, she appeared in several other series, including Guiding Light, In the Heat of the Night and Spenser: For Hire.

She also featured in Spike Lee’s 1988 movie musical School Daze. She eventually retired from acting in the 1990s and went on to become a librarian at White Plains Public Library.

Many of her family members were prominent figures in the local Black community. One of her relatives was the first African-American woman to earn an MD in New York City, another was hired as the city’s first Black female principal and a third was the first Black woman to join the cabinet of the city’s mayor.

Holly is survived by her grand-nieces, Alexa and Ashley Jones; their father, Xavier Jones and cousins, Wanda Parsons Harris, Julie Adams Strandberg, Carolyn Adams-Kahn and Clinton Arnold.