26 Facts About Nell Carter

Nell Carter received two Emmy and two Golden Globe award nominations for her work on the series.

Nell Carter Ruth Hardy was born September 13,1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children born to Edna Mae and Horace Hardy.

Nell Carter was born into a Roman Catholic family and raised Presbyterian.

Nell Carter became pregnant and gave birth to daughter Tracy the next year; finding raising a baby alone too difficult, she sent her child to live with her older sister Willie.

Nell Carter later claimed that Tracy was the product of a brief marriage, but she revealed the truth in a 1994 interview.

At age 19, Hardy changed her surname to Nell Carter and left Birmingham, Alabama, moving to New York City with the Renaissance Ensemble.

In New York City, Nell Carter sang in coffee shops, nightclubs and bathhouses, then landed her first role on Broadway in 1971.

Nell Carter made her Broadway debut in the 1971 rock opera Soon, which closed after three performances.

Nell Carter was the music director for the 1974 Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of "What Time of Night It Is".

Nell Carter appeared with Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn Is Green.

Nell Carter broke into stardom in the musical Ain't Misbehavin, for which she won a Tony Award in 1978.

Nell Carter later won an Emmy for the same role in a televised performance in 1982.

In 1978, Nell Carter was cast as Effie White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, but departed the production during development to take a television role on Ryan's Hope.

In 1989, she shot a pilot for NBC titled Morton's by the Bay, which aired as a one-time special that May; Nell Carter played the assistant to a banquet-hall owner, and the focus was on her and her madcap staff.

In 1990, Nell Carter starred in the CBS comedy You Take the Kids.

Nell Carter co-starred in Hangin' with Mr Cooper from 1993 to 1995.

Nell Carter was upset when commercials promoting the show used a different actress, white actress Marcia Lewis, as Miss Hannigan.

Nell Carter was survived by her friend Ann Kaser, who inherited her property and custody of her two sons.

Nell Carter is buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Nell Carter attempted suicide in the early 1980s, and around 1985 she entered a drug detoxification facility to break a long-standing cocaine addiction.

Nell Carter married mathematician and lumber executive George Krynicki, and she converted to Judaism in 1982.

Nell Carter filed for divorce from Krynicki in 1989; the divorce was finalized in 1992.

Nell Carter had three children: daughter Tracy and sons Joshua and Daniel.

Nell Carter adopted both Joshua and Daniel as newborns over a four-month period.

Nell Carter attempted to adopt twice more, but both adoptions failed.

In 1992, Nell Carter had surgery to repair two aneurysms and married Roger Larocque in June.