US actress Diahann Carroll, who won Golden Globe and Tony awards and was nominated for an Oscar, has died.

Axar.az reports citing BBC.

Carroll, who was 84, starred in 1960s TV show Julia, the first US sitcom to centre on a black woman.

She was also the first black woman to win the Tony for best actress in 1962, for Broadway musical No Strings. She went on to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress in 1975 for Claudine.

In the 1980s, she played the scheming Dominique Deveraux in TV hit Dynasty.

She had been suffering from cancer and died at home in Los Angeles on Friday, her publicist said.

Born Carol Diann Johnson in Harlem, New York, in 1935, she was modelling by the age of 15 and was reportedly the model for one of the first black Barbie dolls.

At the age of 19, she won her first Hollywood role, appearing opposite Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones.

She suffered racism both in Hollywood and as on stage as a singer. In her autobiography, she detailed a concert when the orchestra conductor told her the audience didn't want to hear a black person sing. She confronted him, called the police and eventually had the man removed from the show, she wrote.

Returning to the big screen, she starred in Porgy and Bess alongside Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr and Dandridge. Other film credits included 1961's Paris Blues with Paul Newman, and Hurry Sundown in 1967 with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda.