27 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 on September 13,1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children born to Edna Mae and Horace Hardy.

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

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, where she sang in coffee shops, nightclubs and bathhouses before landing her first Broadway role 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, but the show closed before reaching Broadway.

Nell Carter became a star for her role 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 1979, Nell Carter had a part in the Milos Forman-directed musical adaptation of Hair and her voice is heard on the film's soundtrack.

In 1989, Nell Carter played the assistant to a banquet-hall owner in an unsuccessful pilot for NBC titled Morton's by the Bay, which aired as a one-time special that May In October, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 4 of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco.

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

Nell Carter costarred in Hangin' with Mr Cooper from 1993 to 1995.

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

However, Nell Carter felt that racism played a part in the decision.

In 2001, Nell Carter appeared as a special guest star on the pilot episode of Reba and continued with the show, making three appearances in Season 1.

On January 23,2003, at the age of 54, Nell Carter collapsed and died at her home in Beverly Hills.

Nell Carter is interred 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 longstanding 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 and 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.

Nell Carter married Roger Larocque in June 1992 but divorced him the next year.