The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way (0060763264)

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Editorial Review:

It's conventional wisdom that Hollywood has no use for a woman over forty. So it's a good thing that Diahann Carroll--whose winning, sometimes controversial career breached racial barriers--is anything but conventional. Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of the hit program Grey's Anatomy, developed a role just for her, and a recent show that's touring the United States, The Life and Times of Diahann Carroll, was enthusiastically embraced by the New York Times. And all this since Carroll turned seventy!

Here she shares her life story with an admirable candidness of someone who has seen and done it all. With wisdom that only aging gracefully can bestow, she talks frankly about her four marriages as well as the other significant relationships in her life, including her courtship with Sidney Poitier; racial politics in Hollywood and on Broadway; and the personal cost, particularly to her family, of being a pioneer. Whether she's recalling an audition for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, reflecting on her marriage to Vic Damone, or talking about her experience with breast cancer, Carroll's storied history, blunt views, and notorious wit will be sure to entertain and inform.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

What a self-aggrandizing liar!:

How does she get away with it over and again? On the very first page of this tome, Diahann Carroll claims to have been the first African-American actress to have her own sitcom, "Julia." How could she possibly have forgotten that Ethel Waters had her own show back in the fifties, "Beulah!," and that after two successful seasons the show was then carried by Louise Beavers? This is television history and I do not believe Carroll was without a TV set when she was a child in Harlem being raised "like a... more info

'The Legs are the Last to Go' is a Must Read:

Usually, memoirs and autobiographies are lacking in some area. They are sometimes reserved, sometimes very self-serving and indulgent, sometimes a blatant attempt to shape and craft one's reputation as they'd like it to appear rather than how history and their fans or peers remember them. None of that is the case with Diahann Carroll's memoir 'The Legs are the Last to Go'. I loved this book. It hooks you from the first chapter and is crafted and posed in such a way that it makes you feel as if you're... more info

Compelling read,:

quite interesting life! This woman has lived 9 lives~ Ms. Carroll gives wise advise and is honest to the reader about her mistakes and triumphs.. I recommend this book highly.

An enjoyable view into the life of a grande diva:

This book is an unflinching appraisal of the life of a veteran of stage and screen. Diahann Carroll is one of those performers who's been around ever since I've been alive, yet I knew very little about her before reading this book. Classy and beautiful, she relished playing the role of Dominique Devereaux, the first Black bytch on tv - her words not mine. But there is a lot more to Ms. Carroll than that. She is brutally honest about how her focus on her career strained her relationships with her mother, her... more info

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