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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.

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The Empress' New Clothes

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A very juicy read but as others have mentioned, Ms. Carroll seems obsessed with how she looks and what she's wearing - designer clothing, Cristal champagne, Louis Vuitton, etc. A little off-putting. Somewhere in her book she calls herself a snob. She's right. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It can mean you are just more discriminating. But she seems like a royal pain in the you know what to me. Although I do admire her always standing up for her race and not taking any guff from anyone. A gutsy lady, certainly. But not someone I admire.

One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

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In her memoir, The Legs Are The Last To Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying & Other Things I Learned The Hard Way, Diahann Carroll stresses this is not a biography (she has already written that in 1982), but rather a discourse on life lived on one's own terms. Carroll, star of stage, television, and the silver screen, waxes philosophically on love, motherhood, racism and show business with a confidence that she has been accustomed to her entire life. Raised by working class parents from South Carolina, who through the proverbial pulling up of their bootstraps, ascended into the black middle-class in New York in the 1940s and 50s. While Carroll was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she exhibited a great talent in the arts with her singing and musical training. Plucked out of her performing arts high school into modeling, and eventually acting and singing, she crossed barriers and bucked traditions. For instance, she played the lead in "The Owl and the Pussy Cat" on Broadway, a role written for a white woman. Additionally, she was the first African American woman to have a television series, "Julia", in the 1960s. While she was very successful in her professional life, Carroll struggled with her personal life, counting four failed marriages, numerous affairs, and her ever-conflicting role as mother to daughter, Suzanne. Carroll regrets the missed opportunities with her daughter because she was so busy building a career. When they did have time together appearances were always important, and being dressed to a "T" in public took precedence over being mommy. It was always about Diahann and what she wanted. And what Carroll wanted was Sidney Poitier, THE Sidney Poitier, the academy award actor, who as a senior citizen still makes women swoon. Despite his being married, Carroll was willing to give up her marriage to her daughter's father, Monte Kay, only to be rejected by Poitier. A marriage to singer Vic Damone and a long-time affair with TV personality, David Frost, floundered, both relationships wracked by insecurities and bad judgment. It appears that Carroll simply made poor choices, continually, over and over, when it came to men. It is only in her "golden" years, now that she is in her 70s, that she has found satisfaction in being alone. A brush with breast cancer and being a grandmother has sobered and mellowed her into a peace she has long sought. After all, when everything on you starts to sag, the legs are the last to go and Carroll is still standing tall in her high heels. Dera R. Williams APOOO BookClub

Wonderful book... I'd buy it TWICE!

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As a younger woman who has followed Diahann Carroll's life and overall career in entertainment that has spanned over the last 40 years, I truly admire this "literary opportunity" to read, take and adhere to the words of wisdom from a woman who has been there and done that... several times over. I believe Diahann to be LIVING proof, to the admirer and unadmirer, of what a life lived gracefully trimmed with beauty can accomplish. I can only hope and pray now at age 28 that I can still work a pair of heels at age 73. True beauty, both inner and outer, is one that is maintained for a lifetime. You go, Ms. Carroll!

The Legs are The Last to Go	Customer Rating:
The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way Very well written. I enjoyed this book very much.

Too shallow for words..	Customer Rating:
I had read Diahann Carroll's first biography and enjoyed it much better than this one. She at least admits what a perfectionist and controlling person she is and it certainly comes evident and tireing in this book. She seems to lack any real depth or sensitivity and so self absorbed in her clothes, hair, her many men etc. and is so shallow it was hard to finish the book.