Diahann Carroll, who broke network television’s colour barrier for an African American actress, has died of cancer at the age of 84.

Carroll came to TV by way of the musical theatre.

She won a Tony Award in 1962 as the star of Richard Rodgers’ musical ”No Strings,” a role that had been written just for her.

Her first major TV role was that of the  middle-class single mother Julia in a 1968 sitcom of the same name.

Carroll played nurse Julia Baker, who was raising a young son after the death of her serviceman husband in the Vietnam War.

She was only the fourth black actress to be nominated for the best actress Oscar for the 1974 romantic drama ”Claudine.”

Ellen Burstyn won it for ”Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”

Carroll returned to series television in the mid 1980s on the nighttime soap ”Dynasty,” where she played Dominique Deveraux.