Ellen Holly, the first Black soap opera star, has died at age 92. Holly changed television with her role on the daytime soap One Life To Live. The New York City native came from a family of achievers; her paternal great-grandmother, Susan Smith McKinney Steward, was the first African-American woman to earn a medical doctorate in New York and the third in the country. Her great-aunt, Minsarah Smith Thompson, was the first Black woman principal of a New York City school. She was a graduate of Hunter College and had pledged to the Delta Theta Sigma Sorority Inc. while she was there. Holly started her acting career in New York City and Boston. She made her Broadway debut in Too Late the Phalarope in 1956 and went on to have starring roles in other Broadway productions, including Face Of A Hero, Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, and A Hand Is On The Gate. From the late ’50s until the early ’70s, she led several Joseph Papp New York Shakespeare Festival Productions. During this time, she worked with prominent actors of the day, such as Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, Jack Lemmon, Barry Sullivan, and Cicely Tyson. Holly also studied with dance pioneer Katherine Dunham and discovered her passion for dance and its richness within African-American culture.
Holly’s first television roles were in The Big Story, The Defenders, Sam Benedict, Dr Kildare, and The Doctors and the Nurses. She took on the groundbreaking role of Carla Gray on ABC’s One Life To Live from 1968 until 1980 and from 1983 to 1985. Television producer Agnes Nixon handpicked her for the role after reading an opinion piece Holly wrote for the New York Times titled, How Black Do You Have To Be,” which aired her challenges finding work as a light-skinned Black woman. It was the first time a Black person starred in a soap opera, and Holly was written about in the pages of Ebony, Soap Opera Digest, TV Guide, and the New York Times. Her moment led to stories about Black life on All My Children and General Hospital. Holly made history with her high-profile role, but she later revealed that she and others like her still encountered racism when it came to their pay and other forms of disrespect.
In the late ’80s, she had a recurring role as a judge on The Guiding Light. She also appeared on the television shows In The Heat Of The Night and the made-for-TV movie 10,000 Black Men Named George alongside Andre Braugher and Marion Van Pebbles. Holly was a regular contributor to the New York Times, and her autobiography, One Life: The Autobiography of an African-American Actress, was published in 1996. She also became a librarian before the decade was over.
Holly wanted family, friends, and fans to make donations to The Obama Presidential Center or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in lieu of a funeral.
