Overview

• Ellen Holly, the first Black actor to star in a soap opera with a lead role on “One Life to Live,” passed away at 92.
• Holly's groundbreaking role came after she published a column in New York Times in 1968 describing her difficulties finding roles as a Black woman with lighter skin.
• She starred on the soap for more than a decade, from 1968 to 1980 and again from 1983 to 1985, and her storylines included a love triangle between her character and two doctors, one white and one Black.
• Holly later appeared in other television series, including “The Guiding Light” and “In The Heat of the Night.”
• In the 1990s, Holly became a librarian at the White Plains Public Library, calling her years there some of her happiest.