Talk:Carla Gray

From Ellen Holly

I removed the following material from the Ellen Holly article as it is unnecessary there, but may be useful for my planned copyediting of this article:

She came to the attention of Agnes Nixon, the creator of One Life to Live, after writing a letter to the editor of the New York Times about what it was like to be a light-skinned Negro. Miss Nixon created the role of Carla and offered Miss Holly a role on her new show.

When she began on One Life to Live in October 1968, it was not revealed to the audience that she was an African-American. Her character, a touring actress, had an Italian surname. Later, a Caucasian physician, Dr. James Craig (then played by Robert Milli) became engaged to marry her. But she was falling for an African-American doctor (played by playwright Peter DeAnda) on the show. When the two kissed on screen, it was reported that the switchboards at ABC were busy by fans who thought that the show had shown an African-American and Caucasian kissing.

Carla, her One Life to Live character, later married an African-American police officer, Ed Hall (played mostly by Al Freeman, Jr.) and adopted a son, the streetwise Joshua West, who was first played by a young Laurence Fishburne. She and Ed later divorced after Carla fell in love with a physician, Dr. Jack Scott (Arthur Burghardt).

After the death of Dr. Scott and her first exit from One Life to Live in the early '80s, Ellen Holly was invited back to the program several years later, and the character of Carla returned to Llanview as a lawyer. She became involved romantically with football star Alec Lowndes, played by Roger Hill, better known as "Cyrus" from the cult film The Warriors, while Carla's former husband Ed Hall dallied with publicist Courtney Wright, played by a young Phylicia Rashad. Offscreen, Holly also pursued a relationship with Roger Hill. As for Carla, she and Ed eventually reunited, only for Carla to move away to take a judgeship in Arizona when Holly was fired from the show by new executive producer Paul Rauch. All remaining traces of Ellen Holly's onscreen family, including Al Freeman, Jr., were dismissed not long after, though Freeman made a brief guest appearance in 2000 as Ed Hall to support the shortlived character of Ed and Carla's grandson, Jared Hall, played by Herve Clermont.

Text from the current version of Ellen Holly:

She came to the attention of Agnes Nixon, the creator of One Life to Live, after writing a letter to the editor of The New York Times about what it was like to be a light-skinned Negro. Nixon created the role of Carla and offered Holly a role on her new show.

When Holly began on One Life to Live in October 1968, her African-American heritage was not publicized as part of the storyline; her character, named Carla Benari, was a touring actress of apparently Italian-American heritage. Carla and a Caucasian physician, Dr. Jim Craig, fell in love and became engaged. But she was falling for an African-American doctor. When the two kissed on screen, it was reported that the switchboards at ABC were busy by fans who thought that the show had shown an African-American and Caucasian kissing. The fact that Carla was actually the African-American "Clara Grey" posing as Caucasian was revealed when Sadie Grey, played by Lillian Hayman, was identified as her mother. Sadie would eventually convince her daughter to embrace her heritage and tell the truth.

Holly left the series in 1981, but returned in 1983. Offscreen, Holly pursued a relationship with costar Roger Hill, known for his role as Cyrus in the cult film The Warriors. According to her autobiography, in 1985 Holly was fired from the show by new executive producer Paul Rauch.

If anyone else wants to take a shot at it in the meantime, by all means ... — TAnthony^Talk 23:48, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Helpful link to discussion of Holly's autobiography: http://www.geocities.com/~onelifer/hollybk.html — TAnthony^Talk 23:53, 22 January 2008 (UTC)